Missing but Not Missed
by butterflybg
Summary: An important figure from Yugi's life shows up 27 years too late. Yugi's father, who not only abandoned Yugi and Yugi's mom, but he does not show up alone. Will Yugi's actions be so predictable? What will Yugi learn about family and being there for them?
1. Introduction

I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! of course!

Ch. 1

Yugi turned off the television, and set the remote down. He yawned before waking up Tea, who fell asleep during the movie. He nudged her while softly repeating, "Tea, Tea wake up.", until she opened her eyes. He told her it was late and she should go to bed. She agreed and sat up half awake. She asked Yugi if the ending was any good and he said it was alright. She nodded, then kissed him goodnight and went to her room.

He watched her walk up the stairs and disappear into her room, then decided it was time for him to disappear into his own. He got up from the couch and turned off all the lights after making sure all of the doors were locked. He climbed up the stairs to go to bed. His bed was a queen sized bed, but only he occupied it. He got the chance to pick his own bed for once, so he chose this size because he liked to have a lot of space, and the mattress comfortable. He lay in his bed with a smile on his face, not really knowing that he was smiling, he only knew that life seemed perfect.

He himself could not have thought up a more perfect path for his life. For once, he wasn't struggling to get by because of money troubles. His celebrity status alone practically financed everything. Yugi was the number one duelist/gamer in the world and so he reached super-stardom. It was the kind of work that he enjoyed, and it was always a very high paying kind of work. Duel monsters was at an all time popularity with the constant advances in technology, and there were tournaments all over the world. Besides all of that he was always getting interviewed for inspirational stories and making TV and movie appearances. Twice a week he taught a dueling class to amateur duelists who could potentially become professionals. Teaching was something his teachers in high school thought he would never be doing, and it was also something he thought he'd never enjoy, but everyone was surprised. He was quite busy, and financially stable.

It wouldn't even matter to him though if he was dirt poor, as long as he was with Tea. They've been in a relationship for a few years and were as joyful as ever. Of course it wasn't easy or all fun all the time. As any relationship, they had to work at it, and now that they've done that to get as far as they are, they were grateful for each other. It wasn't perfect, but it was stable. The only problem was that it's been stable for a while, and maybe it's been a little too long for Tea. It had been too long to have no downs, but no ups and no more real progress.

If she were to explain that to Yugi, she would compare their relationship to a video game. It's like replaying the same level over and over again, because whenever you get to the end, you get stuck. They're like a high school couple that seemed too perfect because they don't have many arguments, and the few they have were so petty and forgettable. So they always seem happy. It seems like they're ready to take a step further, or go to the next level. She was hoping that he would propose to her. However she didn't know if Yugi wanted to, and she really didn't know what she would say.

The decision would be entirely hers when he asked. Her answer though was waiting for a sign. Yugi seemed to be missing something which she wasn't sure of. Tea wasn't sure though if he was missing it or not showing much of it. She wasn't even sure what it was.

Tea didn't know what she needed to see. She only knew that she needed to see it, and Yugi was fine with waiting as long as she needed to. She didn't feel like that was fair to him, so when Yugi asked her to move in with him she said yes. The reason for doing this was partly to convince Yugi that what they had was going somewhere and partly to keep an eye on him. He told herself that she needed to watch him constantly to see if he showed any signs of what she was looking for. She didn't tell him any of that. However, Tea did mention him being too caught up in his work. For being two people living together, they really didn't spend that much time together. This movie night was Yugi's way of making up for it, but he knew it would take more than that. Yugi has actually forgotten about some of the activities they plan to do together, like going out. This never caused them to get in an argument, Yugi would just feel bad because Tea seemed frustrated. She always forgave him though. She didn't get too upset because she felt bad for making Yugi wait for a sign that she was ready to be his wife.

Yugi wasn't sure how long he could wait, but knew he'd wait forever if he had to. He didn't want anything to go wrong, because it all seemed so perfect. He had everything he wanted, and had less worries than he ever had in his whole life. It all just worked for him.

He even had all his friends in his life, including Atem. After Yugi won their duel, Atem announced that he decided to stay. Yugi tried to convince him to go because it was what Atem always wanted. Atem always spoke about finally being able to rest. When he was given the chance though, he turned it down because he said he wanted to try again. Atem felt like he was given a second chance at living in this world. He explained that his previous life was thrashed and would end abruptly and unfinished if he walked through that door. Suddenly that thought scared him, because he wasn't sure if saving the Earth from destruction could be considered living his life to the fullest. Though, he had died and was meant to be dead, there he stood, with a heart beat and breathing against all laws. That meant something to him.

Still, Yugi tried to convince him to walk through, but fell silent as he watched his best friend watch his only door to eternal rest close. Yugi didn't know what to think of Atem's decision. Atem smiled and said that it was his to make. He knew that he could live peacefully knowing that they both passed their trials and could move on on with their lives.

For a few years Yugi and Atem were renting an apartment together. Only recently Yugi bought a nice 2-story house to move into with Tea. While Yugi and Atem were living together, Atem dated Tea for a short period of time. The reason it didn't work out is because Atem was too distant from Earth. He got a job at the museum in Domino, so he was actually pretty close to the Earth, but mentally he was out in space. When he lost to Yugi, he felt mortal. He no longer felt invincible, and he knew he wasn't supposed to. He needed time to get used to having weaknesses. Tea figured that out by watching him. Helping him was something she felt she couldn't do, and she thought of herself as useless to him and a distraction. That's why she broke up with him. What he needed to do could only be done on his own. He agreed, but knew that he would always care for her

During this time Yugi was always busy with his work, so being with Tea never crossed his mind. When Atem and Tea broke up, Yugi was still caught up in his work. He did spend a bit more time with Tea to be there for her. Of course he was also there for Atem back at home. He tried to give her space, until they started to plan to meet and hang out a lot more than his busy schedule would normally allow. They began to click and so they started dating. They soon became flirty, then romantic, then passionate and then became a couple. She found one of the things she wanted to see in him, and it was confidence. Yugi gained a lot, and that's what she fell for. They became hooked on each other, as well as being the ultimate team.

So, things became as close to perfect as things were probably going top get. It's because of this that Yugi can sleep with peace. What helps this restful slumber is knowing that his friends and family are safe. His grandpa is now in a retirement home, which is the nicest home for the elderly in the country. Yugi made sure that it was a place where he felt comfortable leaving his grandpa and that his grandpa felt comfortable. He visits his grandpa whenever he can, and his grandpa can always see Yugi on TV. Yugi's mom goes to see her father a lot at the retirement home. She's always checking up on him, especially since she became a nurse. She always had the education to become a nurse, but didn't actually start working at the hospital until Yugi got out of high school. With Grandpa at the retirement home she took over the game shop. As a nurse she can't work the game shop herself, so she hired Tea as the manager.

The only reason Tea isn't in New York studying dance is because she started to attend college in Domino. She lost interest in dancing, because she stopped practicing when she went on those journeys to save the world with Yugi. When she graduated from high school she didn't feel ready to just leave and start dancing, especially since she wasn't sure anymore that is was something she still wanted to do.

However, she majored in business while attending college and graduated at the top of her class. She is working on starting a business of her own, which she is considering fashion. For now though, Tea is still at the game shop, with Joey and Tristan as employees. Joey moved out from his dad's apartment as soon as he turned eighteen. He got an apartment in the city his sister lives in, so he can see her. He works in Domino so he can see his friends. Tristan moved in with him later to keep him company. So they both work at the game shop.

Yugi is glad they work there not only so he can see them, but so Tea isn't running it all by herself. He's sure she can do it, but he wouldn't want her to work there alone, in case it ever got robbed or something. The shop became more successful a while before Yugi's grandfather handed it to his daughter. Again, duel monsters are as popular as ever, so the shop is doing quite well for a little city store on the corner. Another business which is doing well for itself is Kaiba Corp. The popularity if Duel Monster makes their sales in duel disks and gaming technology go up, while also making its theme parks well loved by the public. Yugi takes his family there to enjoy a fun day together.

After all, he gets to have fun now. He also gets to climb into bed having the minimum amount of stress, and fall right asleep.


	2. 27 years too late

Ch. 2

Yugi poured himself a cup of coffee. Normally he would be busy in the morning because of his work. Today though, his schedule was packed in the afternoon, and stay packed until evening, so he gave himself the morning off- which he would be relaxing. He poured some creme into his coffee as he heard Tea come down the the stairs. She was about to leave to walk to the game shop, but first she went to the kitchen to greet Yugi. For it being as early as it was, Tea seemed pretty cheery. She gave Yugi a kiss on the cheek, "Good morning." She greeted.

"'Morning." He took a sip of his coffee.

"It's nice to see you this early.", she smile.

"It's nice to be here this early." Yugi replied as the coffee was beginning to warm and wake him.

"Before you need to go to those meetings, do you want to help me out at the game shop? Then you can keep me company."

"I thought Joey and Tristan would be there today."

"Well, yeah..." Tea changed her voice to be more appropriate for pleading, "...but you should go with me anyways. That way we can spend some time together. Wouldn't that be fun?" She put her arms around his neck. Yugi set down his coffee to put his arms around her waist.

"It sounds tempting, but I should stay here. I need to make some phone calls. Anyways I have paperwork."

"You'd rather do that than be with _me_?" She tried to change his mind with a bat of her eyelashes and a sweet puppy dog face.

Yugi had to look away so her scheme couldn't work on him. "We both know what I'd rather do, but this is what I need to do. Besides, I already promised to take you out tonight." He looked back at Tea to see the surprise on her face.

Which, she was surprised. "Oh really? I thought you forgot all about our plans tonight. I'm impressed."

Yugi smiled, he was impressed with himself. "I would never forget. That's been on my mind since we planned it."

Tea became suspicious, and so she dropped her arms from around his neck. "You're lying aren't you?"

"What, why would you say that?" He tightened his hold of her waist.

"I'll bet you wrote it down in and forgot all about it, until you checked your planner this morning."

"What? I wouldn't just write it in my planner and forget all about it-" He was interrupted by the alarm on his cell phone, which was sitting on the counter. She glared at him and he just sweetly replied, "I wouldn't _just_ write it in my planner. I also set three alarms on my phone to remind me."

Tea scoffed as she tried to pull herself out of his arms. Though she was unable because he was too strong, she did not give up.

"Come on, don't be mad at me." He pleaded while she was struggling to escape.

"I'm not mad, I'm just irritated."

"Don't be irritated. I won't forget, I promise"

"Yes, you will. No technology can help.

"I wont forget because I _want_ to be with you. I mean it, Tea. I'm always looking forward to being with you."

She began to not struggle so much until she stopped all together. "So, you won't forget _again_."

Yugi let go of her. "I definitely won't." He kissed her so she could leave, "I have three alarms on my phone and five reminders written in my planner."

She rolled her eyes and began to walk away. "Whatever, Yugi."

"Wait-" he called and grabbed her arm. "I really am looking forward to it."

"Really? You're phone and planner seem more eager than you do." She didn't look at him, which made Yugi feel terrible.

"Tea, I'm just busy, that's all." Yugi gave Tea a second to think about this, "Besides,my phone and planner can't very well eat dinner with you..." As he said this, Tea turned back around to look at him, then he finished. "...now can they?" She gave him a smile.

"I know you're busy. Do you think you're just too busy though? Maybe we should put off trying to spend time together until-"

"No, Tea. That's not at all what we should do. I'm trying. I'm trying very hard. You believe me, don't you?"

She looked at him and could see that he was telling the truth. "I thought that whole movie thing last night was sweet." She thought for a moment. "I believe that you're trying."

"I am."

"I'm sorry I fell asleep before the end."

"Don't worry about it. After all those dates I messed up, you have plenty of room for mistakes."

"Well, let's hope for no mistakes tonight, okay?" She grabbed her purse.

Before she got to the door he called, "There won't be any mistakes, but I'll call you if there are any. I mean, if there's any change or I'm later than expected."

"Okay then, I love you, and I'l see you later."

"I love you too." He watched her walk out the door. He picked up his forgotten coffee to finish before he went upstairs to take a shower and get dressed.

A half hour had passed before he came back ready for the day, and ready to do some paperwork.

Once he began, the afternoon passed quickly as he read through and signed a few documents, answered and made some phone calls, and started reading another document.

While sitting at his desk, he became distracted by the room. More specifically, at the walls. There were so many pointless decorations on the walls, and on his desk. This room, and most other rooms of the house, could be on some show on how to decorate one's house. This look of stylish is definitely not what he was aiming for, yet he really had no decision on the matter. Yugi handed that authority to Tea, and so she had the only say on _everything_. His opinion was not wanted, or needed, because Tea was all about fashion. Her clothes were always stylish, and "in", and so "her" house needed to be as well.

As he looked around, he could see that the only thing he wanted was one picture of Tea, one plain clock, and one wall calendar. Instead, he got a whole collage of pictures of Tea, underneath the top clear cover on his desk. This, he wouldn't complain about, because he did like those pictures. But then, there were the ones of Yugi and Tea together that were in rather girly frames. Maybe if they were plain black, there would be no problem, but he couldn't understand why they had to be pink, and have fur on them. And the clocks, yes, clocks as in plural- more than one. There were many different styles and colors of clocks, some of them very unique that Yugi had never seen before they were hanging on his wall. Yes, clocks became the theme of this room, either that or Tea really didn't want him to forget the time.

Yugi's house was typical for middle class house. Though, he really was upper, he didn't like to live that way. Even if he thought he could be like Kaiba and make the payments on a mansion, he wouldn't do something like that. As it was, he was questioning the purpose of having a considerably large house. There were already two useless rooms. One of them was a spare bedroom, and the other was the dining room. It was decided (by Tea) that there would be a table in the kitchen that everyone ate at, and the dining room table would only be used when all of the family came over for a holiday. That didn't happen yet, so Yugi was really questioning it's purpose The answer was that the whole dining room served no purpose, even though it was the nicest and most elegant room in the house. No one ever saw it because they have to go through the kitchen to get the dining room, and everyone stops at the kitchen for obvious reasons that it's where they find the food. Tea brought up a good point: what if Yugi invited coworkers to dinner at his house. This seemed like a good point, but that hasn't happened yet either. So for now, it was a useless room, that was the fanciest room. This is what Tea wanted. She really did own him, and the house, and everything he bought.

What was really interesting, is that when a person looks at Yugi, they wouldn't expect him to live in a house like his. Of course, one could expect Tea to. Tea was the preppy-cheerleader who had straight A's in school, and an all around good girl. People looked at Yugi as a bad boy, even for being short for as long as he was. He was the leather wearing, game-playing, gambling bad boy, who didn't score so well on tests. Though Tea never was a cheerleader, and Yugi had to be the sweetest person alive, this is not what people saw at first glance. It was sort of a Sandy and Danny effect, but without all the hair grease. They seemed to be coming from two separate worlds, and they attracted like opposite charges. It was their differences which made them so memorable to each other.

Yugi tried to bring his focus back to the paper he couldn't keep his eyes on. This document was asking him to be the host of a small tournament. The tournament was being held by a dueling organization for youth. It was just a small, non-televised competition, but they wanted Yugi to be there because all of the kids involved look up to him. From what was presented to him in the document, it seemed like a good cause, even if the pay wasn't as high as it would be for the other tournaments. He looked at the clock(s) and saw that if he left now he would be early for first interview. He wondered if it started sooner, would it end sooner and his whole day go faster so he can meet Tea sooner. He quit wondering and started to think about food. He didn't eat anything yet, but he told himself he would get something at the drive-through. With this settled, he walked out the door.

Several hours later that day...

Yugi walked through the door exhausted, as he usually felt after a regular day of work. These days weren't so bad, it was the busy days that had him falling asleep before he got to the door. Luckily this wasn't one of those times. He barely had enough strength to go up the stairs, but it was something he needed to do because he needed to get something nicer to wear to take Tea out.

Yugi stopped before he got to the stairs, wandering if he could just wear what he had on. If not, Tea would probably make him go back and change, unless she thought it was too late in the evening. The time of the day was definitely later than he expected, but not too late, and he was tired, but would just need to pretend to be energetic when he was with Tea. Anyways, she did expect him to be late, and he would apologize for it-but he remembered. However, he didn't remember if they decided on a place to eat. It probably wouldn't matter though, because women are famous for changing their mind several times based on their mood. The important thing was that he remembered.

He thought he might call her to let her know that he just got home- but that thought was interrupted by a knock at the door.

Yugi looked up from the phone in his hand and at the door, almost as if he would see who it was, or remember if he was expecting someone. He wondered who it could be, rather than checking to see who it was. Yugi just couldn't think of any reason someone would come to his house so late. It made no sense, and what made even less sense was that he didn't want to answer it. His body was headed toward the door, but against his will. His body had to fight his thoughts just to do the civilized thing and not keep the person waiting. Yugi always did the gentlemanly thing, but suddenly he didn't care to be at all respectful. He felt much more alarmed and surprised than any other time when an unexpected visitor showed up. He finally stood at one side of the door and could practically feel a repelling force from the other side. Repelling was an understatement, because Yugi was being pushed away from the door.

It took all he had to stand there, as he suddenly felt something he secretly always wanted in his life, but turned it down now, as he didn't have it when he should have. Yugi became angry at the door, partly because he was annoyed at the late-night knocking, and partly because it stood in the way of what he secretly always wanted. Then Yugi felt burdened by the door, because there was only so much it could do now to keep what Yugi secretly wanted away from him.

Yugi wasn't sure if he wanted the door to be there or not, and he wasn't sure how he felt toward the door. It had no place in his life, and although it was important to have, and Yugi did want the door to be there. What would happen though, when he opened the door? Was it ridiculous of him to feel this way toward his door? Should he open his door, even late at night? He placed his hand on the doorknob and turned it. He was tired already, and now light-headed, but like pulling off a band-aid he took a deep breath and pulled.

Yugi could already see why the forces of nature were warning him. He was disgusted by the sight of the man before him. It was a man with a familiar face, familiar from faint memories and old photographs. Even for as long as he had not seen this face, Yugi would always recognize it and be able to point it out.

This someone was actually a someone who Yugi had quite a bit of trouble calling a "man", or anything respectful. To Yugi, no definition of the word "man" included leaving a woman and their son alone for her to take care of him. This man did come back to "visit" his son once, and to borrow money from the women who loved, money that he would never return. This forced the woman to move back in with her father who could barely support himself with the family game shop.

The only thing that stopped Yugi from slamming the door in the face of this "man" was the little girl at his side, clutching the man's hand. She was no older than seven years old, and by the widening of her eyes, was definitely surprised to see Yugi Muto.

"Oh, my boy, you've grown so much, how is my son?" This man had short black hair with a bit of gray at the roots. He was average height, and though had no definite beard or mustache, was an unshaven man. He was dressed like a used car salesmen, but not as nice. His smile however was impeccable, like it had been used several times before to get out of trouble.

Though, it was not his appearance, which screamed 'sleaze-ball', that made Yugi cringe, it was that man's use of the phrase "my son". It was a phrase Yugi was not used to hearing from a man, and he definitely wasn't going to get used to calling anyone "dad".

"I suppose you definitely couldn't see how much I've grown by turning on a television." Yugi seemed anything but welcoming.

"Don't be so unforgiving, give your old-man a hug." He held out his arms, but Yugi was neither interested nor was he going to acknowledge the man's gesture. Instead Yugi pretended not to notice because he was focusing his attention directly on the girl.

He had a feeling he knew the answer, but asked anyways, "Who is she?" Yugi didn't show his care for the answer.

The man smiled, "Well, she's _your_ little sister, my daughter."

These words hit Yugi hard, he felt them slam into his chest. He wouldn't show a reaction, but even though he prepared himself to hear these words, they affected him more than he expected. Yugi ignored the man's manipulation of words that were meant to put some kind of guilt trip on Yugi. Even though he did pretend it wasn't his father's words that got to him, he already knew his responsibility to them. Yugi showed no reaction of his own, but saw one from the girl that showed him this was news to her as well. She looked up at the man in disbelief, then looked back at Yugi who would not show defeat.

"Come in." He stepped back and allowed them to come in out of the cold. He invited them to sit down. The girl sat down at the end of the couch and Yugi kneel-ed down on the floor by the end of the couch.

"What's your name?" Yugi looked at her, and tried to be as sweet as possible, considering the circumstances.

"Umm. I'm Iris."

"Do you like to watch TV?'

She nodded and pulled some of her black hair behind her ear to uncover more of her face.

Yugi responded, "Well, I'm going to turn on the TV, and you can turn the channel to anything you want. But I need to talk to your dad alone for a minute in the kitchen, okay? We'll be right back."

She nodded again and so Yugi handed her the remote before he got up off the floor. He gestured for the man to go to the kitchen. Yugi did take notice to the man taking a good look at everything in the home, like he hasn't been in a really nice house for a long time.

Yugi faced the man before him in the kitchen and asked, "So what's the story?", with no patience.

"Yugi," He looked at his son up and down, and smile. He said to himself, "How different you look from when you were a child." He smiled, as if overjoyed, "You know, I've been trying to contact you for so long." He still took a look at Yugi, as if he was still taking in the sight. "I wish I could have, but I had no idea your mom took you to live with her dad."

Yugi rolled his eyes, "I don't care." He scoffed. "What do you want?"

The man began to explain, "I was living with Iris's mom and she kicked us out."

Without taking in the seriousness of them man's voice or situation, he sarcastically replied, "Why, because she realized you were worthless and jobless?"

The man actually appeared to be shocked that he was being spoken to in such a harsh and sarcastic tone by his own son. "How could you speak to me that way?"

Yugi snapped. "How could _you_ do that to us?"

"I already told you" He spoke softly to try to calm Yugi down "My son, it wasn't my fault."

"You're lying!" Yugi realized that he had raised his voice louder than intended, and he could tell because he saw the little girl in the living room turn her head out of curiosity. It usually didn't take so few words to set Yugi off like that. This told Yugi that he would have to calm down.

The man acted like he was tying to comfort Yugi. "Yugi, I'm sorry if you feel that way." He attempted to put his hand on Yugi's shoulder, but Yugi quickly pulled it away.

Yugi thought for a moment before he began to laugh. He laughed at the words, 'I'm sorry you feel that way.' He knew that it was one of those phrases that had the words, 'I'm sorry', but have no intentions to apologize. Yugi took a look at the man, who had his arms open for a hug. As if he could just show up on Yugi's doorstep with a child and an "apology" and think everything would be alright. As if that's what Yugi's wanted from him all along.

Yugi looked back over at the little girl. Her black hair was back in her face. The ends were kind of thin, which meant it needed to be trimmed. Otherwise it was thick and shiny. Her clothes, along with her skin and face, were spotted with dirt. Her eyes however, were bright blue and shined right through the dirt on her face.

He looked back over at his father. Although everything about him said, 'dishonest', Yugi had no choice, which that man knew he left Yugi with none.

"I'll give you a chance."

Yugi's father could only think to reply, "Really?"

Yugi nodded. "What do you need?"

"A place to stay."

Yugi's eyes widened. "What?"

"I've been staying in my truck, but the nights get so cold." He paused, "And Iris-"

"-She's been sleeping in your truck?" Yugi showed he was alarmed, which was a good sign to his father.

"Well, I give her all of my blankets, but you know how it's been snowing."

Yugi did know, and knew how the thought made him feel of a little girl staying in a truck in the snow. Suddenly the image appeared in his mind of a women waiting at a game shop for her boyfriend to pick her up. Showing no manners, he pulled out his phone and dialed Atem's number.

Through the speaker he heard a ringing and then, "Hello." Atem sounded confused.

"Hey, what are you doing right now?"

"Well, I just got out of work." Yugi remembered Atem was working at the museum tonight.

"You just got out?"

"Yes."

"Would you do a huge favor for me?" Yugi asked without realizing that Atem would stop everything he was doing to help Yugi.

"Sure, what do you need?"

"I'm at home, and I need you to pick up Tea from the game shop and bring her here."

This confused Atem some more. "I thought you were taking her out tonight."

Yugi didn't even take notice to the fact that Atem remembered Yugi's date with Tea that Yugi would have forgotten. He then looked at his father and replied to Atem, "There has been a change of plans. I have to stay here and deal with something."

"Is everything alright?"

"Yes-well, everything will be- I think. I'll explain when you get here. Okay."

Atem took a second to think about this, but would soon agree. He was driving at the moment and turned onto the street to head toward the game shop. "Alright, I'm on my way right now. I'll see you soon."

"Okay, thanks." Yugi heard Atem hang up and he pressed the end button without taking his eyes off of his father. The man looked like he was about to speak, but Yugi gestured for him to wait a bit longer while he dialed Tea's number.

He heard her call tone for a second before she picked up. "Hey, where are you? I've been waiting."

"I'm at home now, but I-" He stopped for a moment. "I'm sorry Tea."

"You're not coming, are you?" She sounded upset, but not surprised.

"Listen, I have a very unusual problem here at home."

She became worried."Why? Is everything okay?"

"Don't worry."

"Are you at least picking me up?"

"Not tonight, Atem's going to pick you up and take you here."

Now it was Tea who Yugi confused. "Why can't you come?"

"I'll explain when you get here. Okay?"

Tea was concerned, but had to agree. "I guess so." Yugi could tell that she even sounded crushed.

"Please, don't be upset with me Tea."

"Look, I'll get over it, alright. I'll be fine. What I feel isn't important right now, it's whatever you're dealing with that's important."

"I'll make this up to you." Yugi kind of ignored Tea's message.

"Okay Yugi.." She paused. "You're mom just got here."

Yugi's eyes widened. Not only did that mean it was late, but he didn't even think of his mom. He didn't think of how to tell her that his father was there, and he couldn't imagine her reaction. He panicked, "Tea, listen-" She could hear the panic in his voice."Tea, don't tell her anything about this, especially anything I said. Okay Tea?"

She was silent for a second, which caused him to worry, "You mean don't tell her how strange you're acting?"

"Yes, Tea, or anything I told you. Don't tell her anything."

"Okay, I won't tell her. Will you calm down.?"

"Sure, yeah, I'll do that. I can do that. Okay, yes. I'll see you when you get here, okay?"

"'K, I love you, bye."

"I love you too." Yugi closed his phone.

He ran his hand through his hair and took a deep breath, and then out, as an attempt to calm himself down. This attempt worked enough to get him by. As long as his father didn't say anything stupid.

"Who's that, you're girlfriend?" his father asked.

Yugi shot a glare at the man before walking into the living room. He really had to bring his tension level down before speaking to the young girl. "Are you finding everything okay?" he asked the little girl.

She looked up at him. She was a bit surprised, as she always seemed to be when Yugi spoke to her. She nodded as an answer to his question. Yugi wandered if she was able to read the title of the show, which appeared at the top for a few seconds.

Yugi looked back at the girl and noticed her clothes were a little too big, and her shoes were as well.

He looked at the TV again to see what she was watching. She was watching the Dueling Channel, a channel that always had shows on about Duel Monsters, whether it was televised tournaments, or tips and strategies. Iris seemed very interested in what she was watching. Yugi wasn't sure what it was, because he never actually watched it himself.

Yugi walked back into the kitchen. It was clear that this small trip to the living room not only calmed him down, but gave him time to think.

"I'll tell you what." Yugi was ready to make an offer. "I have one extra bedroom. She can stay in that bedroom until you get everything together and get a place of your own." This was a very nice offer, Yugi thought.

"Where do I stay?" Was the man's first response.

"-your truck." Yugi didn't skip a beat.

"But it's freezing."

Yugi shrugged. "I have no place for you to stay."

"I could sleep on your couch."

Yugi pretended to think about it. "Or, you could- not- and stay in your truck."

"Why?"

Yugi instinctively was careful when trying to word phrases to avoid hurting a person's feelings. He threw those instincts out the window. "I simply don't want you in my house."

"Well then, I think you should lend me some money so I could get a place."

Again, Yugi pretended to think about it. "I just don't think so. That's not happening."

Yugi's father was surprised. "You're being ridiculous."

Yugi shook his head to show that he really didn't care. This silence gave Yugi's father more time to think of another excuse.

He argued, "But, I have expensive stuff in my truck. There's not much room to sleep with it in my truck. I also don't want it to get stolen. Some of it's mine, but most of it belongs to _Iris_. It's all _she_ has left, and all I have to give her."

Yugi had to actually think about this for a moment. He would feel terrible if their things got stolen and he could have prevented it. Yugi didn't feel all that terrible though if something happened to his father. It was a heartless side of Yugi, that he wanted to show his father as a sign of appreciation for everything he did, or rather, didn't do. "Bring your things here." Yugi finally said, finding a way to still keep that man outside.

"Where?"

That was a good question. It was another idea that would actually have to be thought about. Yugi wouldn't want the extra luggage to be laying around the house where someone who walks in can see it in plain sight. There were a couple of reasons for that, Tea would disapprove, and he knew it looked tacky. When thinking that, he specifically wouldn't want his mother to come over and ask questions. There was no other room in the house that seemed appropriate. It finally occurred to Yugi what he could do.

"Leave your stuff in the garage. It's a large garage, and no one can break into it."

Yugi's father then ran out of ideas. "So- I'm still staying in the truck.

Yugi just smiled and nodded.

"You don't think you could lend me some money to get a hotel?"

Yugi's response this time was a look that practically said, 'Are you kidding?' Yugi ignored the question. He never imagined revenge being as great as it was, for he held no other anger toward any other person for any other reason. This really was the one unresolved chapter of his life, where he either imagined making up with his father for lost time, or seeking payback. However, Yugi found one option more appealing than the other, and anyone who really knew Yugi knew which one he really wanted.

Anyways, it would be too hard, to even consider forgiving his father. There was so much anger, resentment, loneliness, confusion, and even jealousy built up inside of Yugi because of his father.

"Bring your things into the garage if you're going to leave them." Yugi said, as he watched his father make his way back out the front door. Before he got out, Yugi called, "Once you're done you can bring your truck into the garage." He gave Yugi a blank look of confusion. Yugi tried to clarify as heartlessly as possible. "It's a lot warmer in the garage." Yugi said nothing more, and his father said nothing.

Yugi's father just smiled to himself as he walked out to his truck. Both of them recognized this offer as allowing him to stay in Yugi's home. The garage was large enough for four big cars, and Yugi had only one. Yugi needed a large garage as part storage and part den. There was a couch in the garage. It was basically a less decorated extension of the house that one could park their car.

It wasn't as nice as having his own bedroom, but it was nice in its own way. That didn't necessarily mean Yugi's father wouldn't try to get more if he could.

Yugi took another deep breath. He walked into the living room and took a seat next to Iris.

"Where is he going?" She looked up at Yugi and asked.

Yugi thought for only a second to think of which 'he' she was referring to. "He's just going to his truck. He'll be right back, okay?"

"Okay."

Yugi thought she would look back at the television, but since he was sitting next to her, he had her full attention.

He finally asked her, "So, do you usually watch this channel?"

She took a second to think before nodding energetically. "When it shows on the TV, then I watch it. Sometimes when I turn the channels I can't find it. It comes on some TV's, but it doesn't come on the others. So I'm glad your TV gets it."

Yugi nodded, and figured she meant that some people order that channel and others don't. This also showed Yugi that she watches TV at a lot of different houses, some that order that channel and some that don't. It made him wander why she was going to so many different houses to watch TV.

She still never looked away from him. Yugi smiled to her and she smiled back at him.

"Would you be alright with staying here for a while?"

Her expression completely and immediately changed, she was definitely surprised. To clarify, she asked, "Here?"

Yugi nodded.

Then she asked, "On this couch?"

He gently shook his head. "No, there's an extra bedroom upstairs. You'll have your own room, are you alright with that?"

Her jaw fell open, to show that she was even more surprised. She then nodded energetically again. Yugi stood up and walked with her to the stairs, and helped her up them. Down the hall, passed his bedroom, and to a spare room they entered. It only had a couch, and plenty of Tea's decorations. It was like a mini-living room, but without a TV.

When there Iris asked, "Is this my room?"

"No, just a little further." And a little further down was a bathroom, then even further was a mini-hallway, which just had three doors to three bedrooms. Each door was on a different wall. The one of them that was Tea's was on the wall facing Yugi, it was the farthest. The other two were extras. Yugi did lie about not having an extra room, but he didn't lie about not wanting his father in his house.

The door on the door had Tea's name on it. Honestly, Yugi didn't know which room was Tea's, he never really came to that part of the house. If it wasn't for the door having Tea's name on it, he might have thought it was a spare bedroom. Yugi opened the door to to his right and turned on the light. The room was mostly empty except for a bed with no sheets, blankets, or pillows. It was just a twin sized frame that held a twin sized mattress. Yugi actually forgot that there was a bed in this room, and never really thought much further than giving Iris her own room. As in, it never occurred to him that she would need a bed, but that was probably because he assumed that it would magically have a bed. The bed, he remembered, came with a set of furniture. It was extra, because neither Tea nor Yugi wanted it. He was glad that it was conveniently, or 'magically', there.

"Your dad will bring in your things. Then I'll bring them up here for you." as Yugi looked around, it began to bum him out that the room was so empty. "If you want I can bring a TV up here for you to watch or something. It would have that channel on it."

She shook her head. "No thank you, you don't need to do that. There's a TV downstairs already that I can watch."

He laughed to himself, as he was quite aware that there was a TV downstairs. He then looked around and tried to think of something he could do. "Are you sure? It wouldn't be any trouble."

"It's fine."

Yugi sat down on the mattress for the first time. He had no idea if the mattress would even be comfortable. It seemed nice.. "Well, this is your bed. Do you like it?" He patted the spot next to him on the bed as a gesture for her to sit down. She took a seat.

"Yeah, I like it." Was her stamp of approval.

"Then I'll get some sheets and blankets to make your bed. If you need anything else you can ask me." He was about to get up, but she grabbed his jacket. He looked back at her, then sat down again.

"I have a question." She said to him.

He sat silent and waited patiently. However, there was only silence, and so he wandered if she was waiting for some kind of permission to ask her question. So he said, "Yes, what is it?"

Iris still didn't say anything, and so he realized that she seemed to be wandering how to ask her question. She finally said, "Well, my dad said that..." she paused, "...he said I'm your little sister."

Yugi could feel the blood rushing to his head again, because it just hit him that he was meeting his sister for the first time. He nodded to her.

"My question is- is that true.?"

He nodded again. "It would seem that way."

"Then my other question is-"

He waited, but nodded again anyway, just in case that's what she was waiting for.

"My question is, does that make you my brother?"

Yugi was thrown off by the question. Then he smiled because he found it extremely adorable that she asked. He nodded to her. "Yes, it does."

"Oh. Okay then." she sounded as if she was done talking about the issue.

So he stood up and said, "I'll be right back." He started for the door, and he opened it, but just as he was going to walk out, she finished.

"because...I had another brother."


	3. Yugi, son of the king of another game

"I'll be right back." He started for the door, and he opened it, but just as he was going to walk out,

she finished, "because I had another brother."

* * *

Hey, check out Love: The Art of Battle. It's an audition fic by Silent Scream of Crimson Tears. Not sure what an audition fic is? Check it out!

Hint: To the ladies, you can still audition, some of the names were just filled in to not leave them blank. Try for any part except the OC and the the OC's sister! hurry, hurry while they're available!

* * *

Yikes! This chapter is long!!

I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!

* * *

Ch.3

Yugi immediately stopped in his tracks as his heart fell. He quickly turned back to her. His face was emotionless, but stunned and serious.

He wanted to ask what she meant, but her expression seemed to confirm every idea that would explain what she meant. They both understood what she meant. This left Yugi with nothing to say.

Looking at her face, he saw that she was more serious now than she had been all night. It also told him that she was understanding of his reaction, which was stunned silence. The silence however, was appropriate. When he thought of the right words to say, he waited for a moment-just to continue the silence. Yugi was about to speak, but before he could say anything he felt the phone in his pocket vibrate. Then both of them could hear a short tune play. Yugi recognized this tune as a text message alert, so he pulled out his phone and flipped it open.

It was a message from Tea that just said, 'We're home'. He closed it and returned it to his pocket. He looked at her again to see that no words were necessary, and there would be a better time for the conversation. This time though, her expression also showed understanding for why Yugi had to leave it at that, and deal with this situation another time. Yugi simply turned and left

Her words echoed in his mind. Specifically, the word 'had'. Even Yugi recognized it as a past tense word. He left that thought where it was, but that didn't stop him from thinking of a million other thoughts.

As he descended the stairs and entered the living room, he heard Tea and Atem entering the front door and ending whatever conversation they were having.

Yugi walked into the living room and toward the entrance. When Tea saw Yugi, she approached him to greet him with a kiss on the cheek. He didn't at all respond.

She simply asked, "Can you tell me now what's going on?" Yugi looked at her as if having to pry himself out of his own thoughts.

Yugi still did not give Tea an answer before Atem asked, "Who's driving their truck into the garage?" Atem took off his coat and put it on the coat rack along with Tea's and Yugi's. Atem then joined Tea in looking at Yugi and waiting for answers.

Yugi couldn't think of much to say other than, "Right, the garage." Because he had to remind himself that he told his father to stay in the garage, and Yugi did leave the garage unlocked.

However, this didn't clarify much for Atem and Tea, but it did confuse them a bit more.

"Yugi, what happened tonight? What kept you from leaving this house to drive down the block to pick up Tea?" Atem asked another question, still hoping for answers.

The Kame Game Shop was only a block away from Yugi's house. Tea walked to work in the morning, but Yugi picked her up at night because he thought it was too dangerous to have her walk home. Of course, Tea begged for a car of her own, but still has not won that fight.

Yugi's immediate response to Atem's question was at first a sigh, then a reply, "I was about to get Tea, when-" Yugi looked for others words, than the one he was trying to avoid, "the man that was in the truck came and knocked on the door."

"And who is he?" Tea asked, which was the question Yugi didn't want to answer but could not avoid.

The reason for this is because Yugi found it hard to say. This is where he became light headed again. He didn't realize how strange it was to apply this one word to himself. Though it nearly was too hard to say, and the thought felt so foreign in his head, he still tried. He cleared his throat. "Well. He is my-" Yugi took in a breath, then out, "-my biological" he stretched each word as far as he could before stopping. "my biological f-" he just couldn't say the word for himself about himself. Yugi quit, but had said enough for them to figure it out.

"You're father?" Atem finished for Yugi, slightly in disbelief.

Yugi, grinding his teeth at the word, could only do half a nod, which was enough of a sign of his answer.

Tea and Atem found this situation to be so random, it was almost unbelievable. However, they also realized what this meant for Yugi and could not begin to imagine what was going through his head. It depressed them so much to see him have to go though this. All Tea could think to do was grab his hand to comfort him.

"He told me he needed somewhere to stay, and I told him he could stay in the garage along with his truck." Yugi finally explained.

"Yugi, I know he's your father-" Tea began as she could feel Yugi tense up when his grip became tighter., "-but after what he did to your family, I think I would have slammed the door in his face if I were you." Yugi looked at her, because he was pretty sure they both knew that for as tough as she was, even she would have let him back in.

He still responded, "I know, and I wanted to slam the door. It's just that..." Yugi wanted to put his words in the best way to have as little impact as possible. Before he could find those words, Tea and Atem thought they were pretty sure of what he would say.

Tea explained, "It's alright Yugi. We know that you're too kind of a person to do that, no matter what he did." Tea looked up at Yugi, and Atem basically agreed with what she said.

This time however, they had the situation all wrong. "No- it's not that. There was a little girl with him."

Of course, they were shocked, which Yugi wanted to avoid. Atem and Tea were so surprised, and in disbelief, they wandered if they should be looking for hidden cameras.

Finally, Atem was able to ask, "Yugi, who is she?"

"His daughter." Which was the answer they suspected. "She's my half-sister. I couldn't leave him alone here, because I don't trust him. I'm sorry I couldn't explain sooner." Yugi looked at Tea, "and I'm sorry I missed our dinner again."

"Yugi," Tea held his hand firmer, and with the hand she wasn't using, rubbed his opposite arm to comfort him. "you have nothing to be sorry for." She looked into his eyes and smiled to him.

Then Yugi's father walked back in through the front door. "I have Iris's clothes right here in this suitcase." He set down a large, black suitcase that appeared old, but still usable. "Who are they?" He looked at Tea, then Atem. Then back at Tea.

Yugi noticed, then pulled her closer as he answered, "This is Tea, and that's Atem." Yugi looked at Tea and Atem, "You guys, that's-" Yugi bit his lip, "that's Komuro, Tanaka " Yugi said nothing more, so Komuro took the opportunity.

"I'm his father." He smiled. Again, Tea could feel Yugi's grip tighten. His father continued, "So, is _she_ your girlfriend or what?"

Yugi's eyes met Atem's before Yugi answered, "Yes. Why?"

"Nothing, I was just wandering." He looked at Atem. "Who is this? A son of your mom's?" He seemed less interested, and even irritated.

"No, he's not." Yugi quickly replied. "Don't worry about it." Yugi became angry at his father's reaction toward Atem, and how he just seemed to look at Atem with disgust.

Yugi didn't have to worryabout that for long though, because the man's eyes soon found their way back to Tea.

"Whatever then." The man looked at Yugi. "What way that is to introduce me to your little..." He looked at Tea, then Atem. "...friends?" then he looked back at Tea.

Yugi didn't answer right away, because he didn't know what his father was getting at. "Why does it matter?"

"Nothing, it's just that I am your only father, and I thought you would introduce me a little bit more politely." Komuro turned to ask Atem and Tea. "Is he just bad at introductions? He's not usually this rude, is he? I'm sure it's all the long hours that are getting to him."

They said nothing. Atem already figured out that Komuro was trying to make Yugi feel bad. He looked at Yugi to see that Yugi didn't catch on that quickly to Komuro's plan.

"Yugi-" Atem tried to warn him. He caught Yugi's attention, but before he had the chance to say anything, Komuro continued on to the step of his plan.

"Anyways Yugi-" He interrupted, as if Yami wasn't speaking. He took a few steps closer to Yugi, but said aloud, "You know, it's still not as warm in the garage as it is in here. Can we both agree that it's freezing cold out there tonight?" He looked at Yugi, and waited for Yugi's forced nod before continuing. "I mean, I don't think that it's fair to treat your family like that. Do you Yugi?"

Yugi just looked away unsure, and reluctantly replied, "I don't know."

So, his father looked at Yugi's friends. As if making polite conversation-with ulterior motives- said, "I read in a magazine article that my son is a generous man. I saw that he helped Seto Kaiba come up with some game ideas for a theme park that orphans could get into for free. He also payed for a years worth of clothes for a local orphanage, as a tribute to Kaiba's campaign to help orphans." He smiled widely, and in the corner of his eye, saw that he had Yugi's full attention. Yugi appeared to be doubting himself, which was just the reaction Tanaka wanted. "I couldn't begin to express how proud I am. Though, I'm shocked that he would allow his own birth-father to sleep in a garage like a dog. He was almost going to make his little sister sleep out there too, but I finally convinced him that the weather was just too harsh for the small child. Poor thing." He looked at Yugi, whose face had turned red, "Yet, you still want _me_ to stay out there?"

This comment threw Yugi off. He still didn't realize what Komuro was doing. Yugi did suddenly feel a shroud of shame come over him

The plan was working. Yugi felt like he was being put on the spot. He could feel the blood rush to his head. Yugi was so unsure. Yugi always put family first. He always forgave family. He was confused. Was he being hypocritical? Could he trust his father? Could he allow him into his house? Could he allow him back into his life? Yugi thought all of these thoughts, and more. He might just let him in. He really thought that he felt terrible for doing something like this to another human being, and the one who...

Yugi could not finish that thought. For lack of words or for lack of memories to fill that emptiness- he could not finish that thought. Yugi focused his eyes on his father. He tried to decide what to do.

Tea could see right through this trick of Yugi's father's. She thought Yugi had figured it out too, until she saw his hesitation to respond. Atem thought for sure that Yugi figured it out by now, but then again, neither Atem nor Tea were in the position Yugi was in. They also waited to hear Yugi's answer.

That would depend on his judgment. All he knew was that he was in no position mentally to rethink his previous decision. A good sense of judgment would be needed to come up with another answer. Yugi wasn't sure if he had that judgment at the moment. He knew that he had good judgment when he made his original decision. So, he stuck with that answer.

Before Yugi could answer, Komuro tried to push Yugi even further. "You know Yugi, you wouldn't even be alive if it wasn't for me."

This statement surprised Yugi at first. Suddenly though, Yugi was struck by anger, but he didn't let it show. Yugi could feel himself losing patience. Yugi was especially getting impatient with his father for continuing to stare at his girlfriend. Atem and Tea looked at Yugi, wondering what their reaction should be, and wondering what his reaction would be.

His father, this time, spoke in a hushed voice, "Son, don't you think you should change your mind? After all, you kind of owe it to me."

At this, Yugi snapped. "I think you should be happy that your daughter has a warm and safe place to stay." He looked at his father sternly, showing that he sees through the man's act. "Now-get out of my house."

This time, his father was defeated. He wouldn't openly admit it, but Yugi did call him on his act. That meant that nothing he said could make Yugi look bad enough, because nothing was worst than pretending to care about your own daughter to get what you want. He decided that he would rather keep what he was already offered, and not be exposed for the lying, selfish, jerk that Yugi already knew he was. So Tanaka just turned to leave. He walked out the front door saying, "Well, I should turn in. I need to get up early tomorrow. Good night Yugi, and Tea, and-"He paused. "-Yugi's friend" and closed the door behind him.

Yugi felt so much relief, but only a bit less tense. Tea looked at him, then turned her face to Atem and showed her concern. He acknowledged this, with his own expression of concern for Yugi.

Atem and Tea had never seen Yugi react like that. It worried them both. They could see the stress change him physically, along with his attitude. At the moment, neither of them knew what to do.

Tea wished she knew how to comfort him. However, she definitely couldn't relate to his problem. She had both of her parents her whole life, and only knew how miserable she would be if she lost either one of them. To be honest, it was because of this feeling toward her own parents that Yugi's reaction to his father confused her. A person only gets one father, and this seemed like it would be Yugi's chance to have one. Though his dad seemed like a jerk, she just didn't know what it took to have so much anger built up toward someone who should have been there as an important figure in one's life. Tea had no clue what it was like to be left by that figure.

Atem also grew up with both of his parents, happily. Once he got his memories back, he was able to explore the memories of childhood in his mind. He remembered it was the best time of his life. Even if his parents aren't alive, he grew up with both of them. He has those memories and he treasures them. It killed Atem to see Yugi effected like this. He was devastated to be left with nothing to do to help.

"Tea, I need to take care of something upstairs." Yugi finally said after seeming to have calmed down. "Come with me."

He began up the stairs, still holding her hand. He stopped and turned to Atem. "We'll be right back." Atem nodded. Yugi and Tea continued up the stairs. When he got to the hallway closet, he opened the door to grab some sheets to fit a twin sized mattress, and a comforter. He handed Tea the sheets.

"What are these for?" Tea asked.

Yugi realized that he didn't tell her why. "I invited my sister to stay in the spare bedroom next to your room. Her bed doesn't have any blankets or pillows though." He closed the door and they proceeded to the room that he was talking about.

Tea asked outside of the room, "Is she in there?"

"Yes." Yugi opened the door to the room which the girl was waiting in. She looked up, and at first had no reaction. Then she saw Tea, then Yugi. Then her face lit up, as they walked in, which made Yugi smile.

When Tea saw the small girl, she smiled from ear to ear. Tea turned to Yugi and whispered, "She's adorable!" Yugi kept smiling and he nodded. Tea sat down next to the girl on the bed. The child looked up at Tea and smiled. Tea asked, "What's your name?"

"Iris ." The younger girl replied, "What's your's miss?"

"My name's Tea, it's nice to meet you."

Iris nodded, "I like you Tea. You smile a lot, and you smell pretty."

As Yugi watched this, he felt the tension lift away, and his heart melt. He wasn't the only one to feel better. When Tea walked into the room Yugi could see the clouds of sorrow and depression, which were surrounding the young girl, vanish.

"Thank you, I like you too. How old are you?"

"I'm six. How old are you Tea?"

"Wow, you're six. I'm twenty-six."

"Really? Does that mean you're twenty years older? You don't look that old."

Tea laughed. "Thank you."

"Hey Tea, we both have six in our age." Iris said excitedly.

"Yeah, we do." Tea loved the joy she could feel from Iris. It made Tea so happy to be with the young girl. Tea looked over at Yugi, who also seemed to be enjoying himself. This alone made Tea smile to herself.

The little girl said to Tea, "Yugi's twenty-seven."

Tea looked back at her, "How did you know?"

Iris didn't say anything at first. She seemed to be thinking of an answer. "Because. I just knew."

Yugi turned to Tea, "She watches the Duel Monsters channel. They have shows that talk about duelists' profiles all the time. I'm sure that's where she heard it."

The little girl thought some more about it, "Yeah, I think that's where I saw it. That channel mostly talks about Yugi. I would say they talk about Yugi eighty percent of the time." Yugi and Tea both looked at her. She thought again on what to say, then she finished, "They talk about him a lot."

"Well, yeah, who doesn't want to talk about Yugi?" Tea laughed, turning to him as if expecting an answer.

He replied, "Yugi doesn't like to talk about Yugi." He blushed and, out of embarrassment, smiled even larger than before. Yugi always was shy, and is still shy, and so he wasn't sure how to react to his popularity. It was strange to him that so many people watch that channel just to see him duel. "Even though I duel a lot, they should show other duelists more often."

Tea looked at him, and saw how cute he looked with that huge smile on his face. His arms though, were still crossed, and she recognized this stance as an 'I don't really feel like opening up and being happy' stance. The reason for this, Tea knew, was that even though he was enjoying himself, Yugi was still deep in thought. It was obvious to her what he was thinking of and she wanted to take his mind off of it and cheer him up. Her ultimate goal was to make him laugh; when she saw that he was in arms reach, it gave her an idea.

So Tea reached out and grabbed Yugi by the belt of his pants to pull him closer to her. She did this often because it was her best way to bring him close to her. He immediately began laughing, because whenever she did that, he thought she was going to tickle him. Tea knew he would react that way, because he was very ticklish.

Through his laughing he tried to say, "Sorry." as he calmed down, "Sorry, I thought you were going to tickle me."

"No, I just wanted to see you smile."

Yugi looked at her confused. He quickly forgot about it though, because he realized that he forgot something. "Hey, we forgot to bring her luggage up here." He said to Tea.

They were silent for a moment before Iris asked, "What's luggage?"

Yugi glanced at her, "Your stuff. We left it downstairs." Yugi looked back at Tea. "I'll go get it real quick."

When he was completely out of the room, Tea turned to Iris and asked, "So, you watch Yugi's duels all the time?"

Iris thought about her answer. "Not all the time, but when I can. It's the only thing I watch. I like watching his duels more than any other other duelist. He's the best."

Tea wanted to keep Iris talking. Tea had this feeling that Iris was saying all of her thoughts. Iris seemed to think a lot, and maybe think about everything she says. Wanting to test her theory, Tea pried a little. "Do you play the game?"

"A little."

"Are you good at dueling?"

Iris shrugged. "I don't know."

"I'll bet you are, you're just really shy- like Yugi."

Iris again, thought before speaking. "Umm..." she replied, "What's shy?"

Tea smiled. "Forget about it. So, why did you start watching Yugi's duels?"

Iris really didn't want to explain why, and she tried not to. However, sh e couldn't help but to express to Tea why she liked the game so much, and why Yugi was such an inspiration to her. "I think Duel Monsters is the best game ever. I do really like to play other games though. That's why I admire Yugi so much. He is not only a duelist, he is a gamer- he's the king. Every other duelist is just a duelist, and they focus all of their day on training for Duel Monsters, just to not embarrass themselves when in the presence of Yugi Muto." She paused collectively. "Of course, Yugi never looks down on others, and he doesn't consider them weaker. Yugi judges others on potential, rather than ability. He always encourages others to just do their best and to not compare themselves to others, like himself. He doesn't have to work hard to beat others, but works hard anyways because it's not fair to those who work even harder to beat him, but fail."

Tea was impressed by the sudden maturity that Iris showed. Awed by the display of vocabulary, she wondered if Iris really understood half of what she was saying. Tea quickly stopped wondering. She knew that no one could show so much admiration toward someone, and not know what they're talking about. "Wow." was all Tea could say.

The little girl blushed again. She didn't realize how much she said- she never really intended on saying so much, or in that kind of way. To recover quickly, she chuckled and replied deceivingly and innocently, "He's my hero."

"How sweet." Tea could see that Iris did not want to reveal everything on her mind, and seemed to be pretending to be more of a child than she really was. What Tea could not figure out though, is why Iris would want to do that. Whatever the reason was, Tea decided that she would find out. She wouldn't do it tonight though, she would talk to Yugi about it first.

Yugi walked downstairs to see Atem standing and waiting at the bottom of the steps.

Atem could see that Yugi had calmed down. Knowing that Yugi was feeling better, relieved Atem-a little- he was still worried about the whole situation and Yugi's temper.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Yugi said as he reached the last step then stepped onto the living room floor. "I didn't want to confuse her by showing her two Yugis."

"That's fine. We'll confuse her some other time." They both laughed. "Yugi, are you really okay with this situation?"

Yugi shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I don't really have a choice. I don't even want to think about it." He paused to sigh, "I mean, I don't want to think about how I feel. I feel trapped and angry, but terrible for feeling angry, and sick for feeling trapped. Then again, it's my stubbornness that got me into this mess."

"No, that's not it at all. It's your father." Yami could see Yugi flinch. "He's the one that's giving you all of these tough and uncomfortable choices. You're being more of a man than he ever was. You're showing a lot more responsibility for your sister than he ever showed for his family. It's his own daughter, and he can't provide what she needs, and he's coming and begging you to bail him out. Of course you can't give him what he really wants, which is money. He has no right to be trusted, and I think you made the right decision."

Yugi allowed those words to sink in. He needed to convince himself that those words were true. "Thanks Yami." They both knew he valued Yami's opinion more than anyone else's.

"I should go home, but if you'd like I can stay here tonight, if you feel safer."

"No, it won't be necessary."

"Then I'll talk to you tomorrow." Yami walked to the coat rack pulled his coat off of a hook.

"Good night Yami."

As Yami walked out the door he said, "Goodnight."

Yugi locked the front door behind him, and went around to check all of the other doors and windows. Then he turned off all the lights downstairs. Once he finished that, he grabbed the large black suitcase that, was stilling sitting at the bottom of the stairs, to take it upstairs with him.

He walked down the hall and into the spare bedroom where he could hear the bathtub water running. Yugi went into Iris's bedroom and only saw Tea. She looked at him and announced, "I put her in the bath."

"That's good. Thank you." He set down the large, but surprisingly not that heavy, suitcase. "Here's her clothes."

Tea opened it and began to look through the clothes. "Thanks, she'll need some pajamas for when she gets out."

Yugi sat on the bed, laying back lazily, and let Tea go through the clothes. He watched her pull out shirts and put them in a pile on the bed, and do the same with shorts and pants. The piles were small, and not getting much larger. As she continued to look through them she seemed to be getting more and more frustrated, and looking even harder. So Yugi asked, "What's wrong?"

Tea dropped her hands in defeat, "I don't see any pajamas. There's really not much here that she can even wear. Most of the shirts and pants are either too small, or too big. She only has about four or five shirts for a girl her age, and three pairs of pants that might fit her-if she had a belt."

"Well, she doesn't _need_ pajamas, she just needs something comfortable to wear. Find her a t-shirt and some shorts or something."

She nodded, then sighed, "I guess so." Tea picked out a plain t-shirt that would be big on Iris, and some cotton shorts that would fit. She put those on the bed and shut the suit case. Tea then began to put the clothes from the piles onto hangers and put them into the closet. She was silent, as if thinking hard. Then she finally asked, "What can we do?"

This question caught Yugi's attention, and he looked over at her. "What can we do?" He asked, making sure he heard her right. "Do about what?"

Tea hung another shirt in the closet and grabbed another hanger. "Well Yugi, she has so little, and we have so much." She put the last shirt on the hanger, and into the closet. "It breaks my heart to see such a young, sweet girl with basically nothing but the clothes on her back."

"I know what you mean, but I don't know what you want me to do about it." He replied, which made Tea look at him sternly. "I mean, I don't know what to do about it."

"I think I do." She replied. While he was laying back and lounging comfortably, Tea sat next to him on the bed and sat up with her great posture.. She had an expression that told him she was asking for something.

Yugi caught on, and quickly figured out that she wanted something. "What? What do you want?"

She smiled sweetly and replied, "Some money."

"What?" His expression told her that she was crazy. "You're crazy."

"Yugi, please."

"There is no way I'm giving you a bunch of money to walk around to a bunch of stores to buy clothes. No way."

"Well, I didn't exactly say, 'a bunch' of money, but keep talking." She smiled.

"No, like I said, you're crazy."

Tea gave him sweet, large, puppy dog eyes. "You could give me your credit card."

Suddenly, it was his eyes that became larger, as he was stunned with fright, and began shaking his head. "No, no, no." He gasped. "I'll never do that _again_!"

"Why not?"

"Do you remember what happened _last_ time?"

"Yes.." She tried to appear as angelic as possible. "I decorated the house, that's all."

"Oh, you decorated the house all right. There is not one spot in this house that was left undecorated." Yugi looked around at the bedroom. "Except this room."

She looked around also. "I wanted to leave options for this room." She looked back at him. "Besides, most of the cost was the furniture, which was necessary."

"Okay, I'll give you that. The furniture was necessary- most of it. You know what wasn't necessary was repainting the house- to create a theme, the paintings hanging on the walls-to fit in with the theme, those rugs that were extra- for the theme. And, after I begged you to leave _my_ room alone, you painted it pink and red! You _had_ to put in those vases with flowers, and those purple colored curtains on the windows." He looked around again. "But you didn't touch this room. I can't believe I let you manipulate me like that."

Tea was shocked at the way he spoke of her decorations, implying that they were unimportant. She quickly retaliated, "Well first of all, I can believe you let me manipulate you." She replied, and Yugi glared at her. She quickly continued, "Second of all, I didn't paint your room pink and red. It's lavender, which is a great contrast with the purple curtains..." She smiled, but he rolled his eyes. That showed her that she wasn't helping her cause. "...which is a very manly color pallet. And thirdly, I was just getting that out of the way so I wouldn't have to redecorate it when it becomes my room."

Yugi partly sat up a bit. He looked at her questioningly. "Your room?"

She thought for a moment and smiled, "I mean our room. When it becomes _our_ room."

He sighed. "I am such a sucker."

"A sucker that I love." Tea's smile grew larger. She knew she was going to get what she wanted. "Pleeeeease Yugi." She pleaded.

"You can't have my credit card." He scolded. She frowned noticeably. He continued, "But she's my little sister, so _we_ can take her shopping."

Those words confused Tea. "You hate shopping. That's why you gave me your credit card to begin with. Besides, you would have no idea what to get for a six year old girl. You've never been one."

He sighed again. "What I mean is _you'll_ take her shopping, and I'll follow you around paying for everything." His unhappiness was apparent, as he had already begun to imagine a whole day, sitting in stores, waiting for Tea to find several outfits. He would say 'no' to most of them, then Tea would start explaining why all of it was necessary. She would begin to say things that Yugi didn't understand, like some skirt "accentuates" some feature, and some color is a "neutral" and something about a "pattern" or a "hypotenuse", Yugi wasn't quite sure.. Suddenly everything would become so blurry and confusing to him that he just says, 'yes' to everything. Eventually, using her big words and fashion lingo, she gets her way. He knew that was true.

Yugi's horrified expression did not stop Tea from being overwhelmed with joy. "Yes!" She exclaimed while throwing her arms around him. In her excitement and throwing her weight on him. "Thank you, thank you, so much!." She hugged him tighter as her was laying on the bed. "I promise you won't regret it."

"Tea." Yugi attempted to get Tea's attention.

"Yes my perfect boyfriend!" She said before kissing him.

Yugi laughed. "Boyfriend? Ha! You're so using me." Yugi accused jokingly.

While smiling, Tea pretended to be shocked. "How could you that?"

He smiled back. "It's true admit it."

"Hmmm... Okay, it might be a little true. But even if I am just using you for your money, I still love you." Tea kissed him again to prove it. "Now admit that you like it when I use you."

"Well-yeah. I do." This time he kissed her.

"And admit that you like it when I decorate your house."

Yugi stopped smiling. "No, that's too much."

"You like it and you know it."

"You mean when you decorate _your_ house, that I just live in and pay for?"

Tea smiled. "Yes, my house."

"Okay, I like it." They laughed.

The door opened, and they looked at the small child who was dripping wet and wrapped in the towel. "I'm done." She announced. "And I brushed my teeth like you asked me to."

"Great!" Tea replied while getting up off of Yugi.

"I think I forgot to turn the bathroom light off though." Iris turned to go back and turn it off, but Tea stopped her.

"No, that's alright. Yugi will go do it. Won't you Yugi?" She smiled at the confused Yugi.

"Oh, yeah. I will. I will do that right now." He got up and left the room, shutting the door behind him. As he approached the bathroom, helooked inside. He was surprised at how it looked, because somehow he never saw it before. Yugi was blinded by the amount of pink. In reality, there was not even that much pink, but to him any amount of pink is too much pink. He took notice that the shower curtains were white with pink trim, and so was the mat on the floor. The glass toothbrush holder and the soap holder was also white with pink. It truly disgusted him.

He turned off the light as he originally planned. He walked back to the room and waited for a few minutes before knocking on the bedroom door. "Can I come in?" He asked.

"Yes." He heard Tea reply.

As he walked in, he stated, "It's so pink and girly."

Tea immediately knew what he was talking about. "Do you like it?" Tea asked teasingly.

He gave her a funny look. "You're crazy. DO I look like a girl?"

"How long have we lived here and you've never seem that bathroom."

Yugi did think that was strange. "Why is that?" He asked.

She walked up to him, preparing for any reaction he might have to what she was about to say. "Well, it's actually because I've always changed the subject whenever you asked about it. Oh, and I made you avoid it completely."

Yugi gave her a dirty look. "You manipulative, conniving little-"

She kissed him to cut him off. "I love you too. But watch your language now."

He shook his head, and smiled mischievously. "I swear, if you weren't so good looking, we wouldn't even be standing here." He joked.

She smiled back. "The same goes for if you weren't so good-looking." She joked back.

"Oh yeah? Why is that?"

She wrapped his arms around his chest. "Because, we both know that if you weren't so good-looking, you wouldn't be able to score a good-looking chick like me."

He gasped at her comment, before replying. "Well, maybe she'd love me for my personality."

Tea thought for a second. "Ummmmm-No. It's definitely just for your money." she smiled teasingly.

Yugi knew this comment would get him in trouble, so he kissed her before quickly remarking, "Maybe she's better looking than you."

Immediately he flinch because he knew she would hit him. She gasped and did just that. She slapped him on the arm before pretending to storm off. "Maybe you should go find her then, I'm sure she's out there somewhere."

"No." He called as he grabbed her arm to catch her before she got away. Tea turned around. Yugi just stated. "I found her."

She smiled and wrapped her arms around him again. His apology was another kiss.

"You guys kiiissed!" Iris teased.

Tea let go of Yugi. Iris sat down on the bed, and Tea sat next to her. Yugi was going to stay standing, but then he knelt onto the floor next to Iris to see her face now that it was all clean. She smiled again to display her white teeth. Her smile made him smile.

"Is that better, now that you've had a bath?"

She nodded energetically. "The dirt's all gone now."

Yugi laughed, only because he never knew a child who enjoyed taking a bath. He himself hated to take baths. He also heard the story of Tea being afraid to take a bath because she thought she would go down the drain. He laughed some more to himself. Then Yugi looked back at the child. "Now that that's done, you look so clean and pretty."

She smiled again, "Thank you. I think you look clean and pretty too."

Yugi's eyes immediately shifted to Tea, who already began to laugh hysterically. He glared at Tea before looking back at Iris, who also started laughing a little. "Thank you." he simply replied. "Are you ready for bed?"

"Yeah. I'm really sleepy."

"Well, if Tea decides to quit laughing long enough for you to get into bed, that would be nice."

Tea took the hint and got up, and so did Iris. Yugi pulled back the covers to allow her to climb into bed, then placed them on top of her. From her bed, she looked up at Yugi and Tea. She held open her arms for them to hug her. Tea hugged her first. She bent down and put her arms around the child, while Iris reached her arms around Tea's neck saying, "Goodnight Tea".

Tea replied, "Goodnight." and kissed Iris on the cheek. "Sweet dreams." Tea brushed some of Iris' hair back away from her face.

"You too." Iris smiled. Tea walked toward the door and stopped to wait for Yugi. Iris held out her arms for Yugi to hug her as well. He took a seat at the edge of the bed and reached his arms around her to hug her as she reached her arms around his neck. This time though, she whispered to him, "Thank you Yugi."

He sat there and hugged her tighter, and whispered back, "I'm glad to have you here."

As he pulled his arms away, her eyes met his and she said, "I really appreciate it."

He smiled and shook his head as if it was nothing, "Any time."

This certainty of his made her large bright smile return to her face. "Goodnight Yugi."

Yugi got up off of the bed and replied, "Goodnight" and he walked out the door and turned off the light.

Shutting the door behind him, he looked at Tea and said, "I think it's time for you to go to bed also."

"I think so too."

He kissed her goodnight, then said, "Get some rest" as he began to walk away.

She stopped him, "Yugi." She called.

Before getting too far, he stopped and turned toward her. "Yes Tea."

Tea didn't say anything. She seemed nervous to say anything, and not sure what to say. "Well-uh. Nothing. Never mind." She was about to let him go, but then said, "Actually, Yugi, I was wandering..."

She stopped.

"Yes." He tried to coax.

"Well. You just seem...tense Yugi. Are you going to be alright?"

Yugi shrugged, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you sure? Do want to talk about anything?" She approached him, waiting for his answer.

"No, but thank you."

"I'm just-"

"Worried, I know Tea. So was Yami."

"Yami?"

"I mean- you know- Atem." Yugi really only called Atem, 'Yami' when they were talking alone.Tea didn't know Yugi called him Yami. "Of course. I'm fine though."

She looked into his eyes. Though she didn't believe him, she had no choice. She placed her hand on his face to bring his closer to her, so she could get a better look into his eyes. "I really care about you. I want to see what's going on in your mind. I want to be able to make you happy."

He looked back into her eyes. He could see her deep love, and care for him. "You do make me happy. I'm completely happy right now. Really."

Tea looked away from his eyes. She still didn't believe him. "I love you Yugi." She said, looking back into his eyes and kissing him.

"I love you too."

He pulled away from her, to go to his room and get ready for bed. As he got ready, he hopes that she believed that he was content with the current situation. Trying to believe it himself, he climbed into bed. Though, to be completely honest, he did toss and turn in his sleep.

AN: I will be FURIOUS if I see that a bunch of people read this story but didn't review. I'm not joking, have some courtesy to at least say that you read it and enjoyed it. Going around thinking that you can just read stories and not even say "great story" to the author is just rude. It's not like we get paid for it. Either say good job or give some helpful feedback or something. That's all I'm asking, because when people add my story to their story alerts and they didn't even review, it makes me not even want to update my story. Readers have a job too.


	4. The unfortunate trend

Yay, a chapter that's not that long, or at least not as long. If you can't tell, I love drama! Love it, love it, I simply love it! If it's too dramatic, let me know. However, I'm hoping my readers love the drama as much as I do. So enjoy!

I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh

Ch. 4

Yugi woke up and brushed his teeth before he did anything else. After that, he took a shower. Yugi could tell that Tea already took a shower, because she always took one in his bathroom- the master bathroom. When they first moved in, it was one of those annoying qualities that you have to adjust because it's a person you love. Now he's used to it. She never woke him up when she sneaked in, so he couldn't really complain.

After he took a shower, he got dressed. He wandered to himself if anything strange would happen today like yesterday. He did have the morning off again, so who knew? Yugi decided to get a cup of coffee, and forget the weird thoughts he was having about having a weird day.

As Yugi passed through the living room, he saw Iris watching TV. He can assumed that it was the dueling channel, and showed no concern as he goes to get his cup of coffee. Cream and no sugar, just the way Yugi prepares his coffee every morning.

Yugi walked back into the living room to confirm that, yes, she was watching the duel monsters channel. However, they were showing a duel between him and some regional champion from England. It was a recording of his duel which was a huge deal at the time. People actually thought this guys might win. Of course, Yugi didn't worry, and did what he usually did which was turn it around at the last second to win. It seemed the crowd completely forgot about this ability of his, because they were surprised. The duel took place in England, that's why most of the crowd was cheering for the guy. He was the town champion who supposedly couldn't be beat. He, like the rest of them, had their once perfect record marked for the very first time by Yugi.

Yugi became embarrassed to see himself on the TV. He couldn't think of everyone focusing on him. It was strange to him, and especially strange for him to watch himself. While he was dueling, he didn't even think of the people watching him. Yugi only focused on the game.

Yugi turned his head toward the girl. In the corner of her eye, she saw him, and so she turned toward him and smiled. He smiled back, then said, "Good morning."

"Good morning." She replied. "Do you know where daddy is?"

Yugi was confused by the question. Then wandered if she knew he was staying in the garage. "In the garage." He replied.

"No he's not. I checked."

Yugi became alert, "What? Are you sure?"

"Yes, you can go check though."

Yugi walked into the kitchen. Unlocking the door and opening it, he walked into the garage. The first thing he noticed was that his own car was the only vehicle there. His father's truck was gone, and so was he. Yugi turned to go back into the house. Then he noticed a folded piece of paper taped to the door of the garage which he just came through.

Yugi pulled the note off of the door to read it: 'Yugi, I'll be back later today. I left to take care of some business and thought I should let you know.' then it has his signature.

Crumpling the note in frustration, Yugi figured that the translation of that was, 'I won't be here today, take care of my kid.'

Yugi walked back into the house to inform Iris that her father wasn't there. As Yugi entered the living room, he was furious. He looked at Iris, but didn't say anything. Clutching the back of the couch to release some stress and try to calm himself down, he could hear Tea entering from the stairs. All dressed and ready for work, she walked up to Yugi, noticing his frustration. "What's going on?"

He lifted one of his hands to hold up the crumpled note. "He left, and he didn't take Iris with him. I guess he'll be back later, but this is a huge inconvenience. Someone has to watch her, but you're leaving, and I'm leaving in an hour. We can't leave her alone."

Tea was looking at Yugi sternly. She seemed irritated. "Yugi, I told you last night to watch what you say." She scolded. She looked at Iris and corrected Yugi, "You're not an inconvenience. Your father is just inconsiderate."

Yugi didn't realize that he could have hurt Iris' feelings. He wasn't sure if Iris realized Yugi's resentment toward their father. Maybe he really didn't need to be so forward with his anger about his father when Iris was there. He looked at her. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to call you an inconvenience."

"What's an inconvenience?" She asked.

Both Yugi and Tea smiled at her.

"Well, I would take her with me," Tea began, "but we're getting shipments today. No one will be watching her and I don't have anything to keep her busy." She thought for a moment. "You're teaching your class today, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Why don't you take her with you? She can learn how to become a professional duelist!" Tea looked at Iris and asked, "Wouldn't you like that?"

At first Iris looked at Tea, then she turned to Yugi to see his reaction to the suggestion. She could see that Yugi was waiting for her answer. She would love to go to one of his classes, but she didn't want to say that and make Yugi pressured when he had to decide whether to take her or not. Iris didn't want to be an inconvenience.

Yugi at first was surprised at Tea's suggestion. He looked at Iris, waiting for an answer. Although she wasn't answering, he knew what she would say. So he answered for her, "She'd love to go. I'd love to have her there."

Iris grinned at Tea, so overwhelmed with joy that she wanted dance around cheerfully like a child. However, she held back.

Tea smiled back, "Perfect, problem solved!" Tea turned to leave.

"Wait." Yugi called. She stopped. "Look at her."He pointed to Iris. Tea looked at Iris, then back at Yugi for an explanation. He continued, "I don't know what she would wear. I don't know how to dress a child, especially a girl!"

Tea looked at the child who was still in the clothes Tea picked out for her last night. "It's not that hard. Just find a shirt that fits, and some pants that fit, and make sure they match."

"Woah, woah, woah, I can't do all of that. That's way too hard."

"You do that for yourself everyday."

"No, my clothes fit me. And I don't need to match anything because all of my clothes are black or dark blue."

"And the accessories..." Tea teased.

"They don't count!" Yugi said, defending his collar and bracelets.

Tea sighed, "It figures." She looked at Iris. "Men can't figure out how to do anything for themselves." Tea shook her head as Iris giggled. "Fine, I'll get her ready if you call Joey and tell him I'll be fifteen minutes late."

"Deal." Yugi took out his phone while Tea took Iris upstairs to change her clothes. Before Yugi dialed the number he shouted to Tea, "Wait. You can be fifteen minutes late, but you can't miss a day to watch a child?"

Tea, who was already at the top of the stairs, shouted back, "Exactly."

Yugi laughed and continued what he he was doing- calling Joey.

"Hello."

"Hi Joey."

"Oh, hey Yugi. What's going on?"

"Nothing." Replied Yugi. "I'm just calling to let you know that Tea's going to be fifteen minutes late."

"Oh yeah? Another fashion crisis?"

"Sort of. It's not Tea's fashion crisis, it's this little girl's...it's a long story."

"Oh, you're little sister."

Yugi was surprised and confused, but more surprised. "Um, yeah. How did you know that Joey?"

"Neighborhood hot line. I heard the whole story."

"Huh." Yugi simply stated. "Interesting."

"Yeah man, I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it. So, where did you hear about it?"

"I heard it from Kaiba."

"Kaiba?" Now Yugi was really shocked.

"Yeah, he heard it from Mokuba, who heard it from Bakura, who heard it from Serenity, who heard it from Tristan, who heard it from Mai."

"Strange."

"I know, you would think that I would hear it from Serenity or Tristan before Kaiba. Especially since I live with Tristan. Well, I guess Mai was trying to call me way earlier this morning, but I was still asleep. You know, Tristan wakes up before me. We both wake up early to catch the train to Domino though."

"No, that's not what's strange, but actually... that is strange. Kaiba?"

"Yeah."

"You were talking to Kaiba?"

"Oh yeah, didn't I tell you that I prank call him every morning? My goal is to wake him, but he wakes up long before the sun does. Anyways, he knows it's me that calls. So, he filled me in on what he heard."

"Mokuba told him, and Bakura told Mokuba? When did they start talking?" Yugi asked, trying to get filled in on the details.

"You know, Bakura works for Kaiba."

"He does?" All of this information was new to Yugi.

"Uh-huh. He works at the Kaiba Land in Tokyo. You didn't know that?"

Yugi was still trying to figure this out, "...Serenity told Bakura, and Tristan told her, and Mai called this morning to tell you but told Tristan instead. Where did Mai hear it from?"

"Well, I hear she heard it from Tea."

"Huh." Yugi stated, a lot less surprised. "Didn't know the neighborhood hot line started before sunrise." Yugi said sarcastically.

"Yeah, well you know Tea. She loves to gossip. Not that it's gossip- you know what I mean."

"It's fine."

"Hey Yugi, you know I'd love to chat longer, but I gotta' go."

"Then I'll talk to you later."

"Yeah. Man- this feels weird."

Yugi wandered, "What does?"

"Oh, well, usually you're the one that's too busy to talk. That's why this feels backwards."

Yugi was surprised again, "I'm never too busy to talk." He said defensively.

"What are you talking about Yugi? You're so busy, we haven't even really hung out in the longest time."

"Fine. Let's hang out tomorrow. We'll meet at the plaza."

"Okay. You'll be there for sure, and you won't miss it?"

"For sure...I mean, yes."

"Yeah, like you never miss your dates with Tea?"

Yugi was going to reply, but couldn't. Joey was right. "You heard about that too."

"Yeah, that neighborhood hot line is a twenty-four hour thing. Anyways, I'm sorry, again. Look, if you meet Tea when you say we'll but her, then we'll talk about hanging out. But you work too much, you need to do some serious prioritizing. Yeah, I know what that means!"

Yugi laughed."Prioritize? Isn't work a priority?"

"I can't answer that for you. You have to answer it for yourself. That's right! I can be all deep like Atem."

"Does he play Tea's little game of telephone too?"

"You bet."

"Well then, I'll talk to you later. Thanks."

"No problem. I'll talk to you later."

Yugi closed his phone and put it back in his pocket. He knows Joey didn't mean to make Yugi upset with Tea, but Yugi couldn't help it. He kept thinking about this whole thing, and continued to get angrier. Though he was patiently waiting, he was impatiently tapping his foot. All he knew was that he needed to talk to Tea about it immediately.

When Tea came back, Yugi crossed his arms and looked directly at Tea. He looked at nothing else as she came down the stairs. Tea did think that it was pretty strange, it looked to her like something was wrong. She thought she was being paranoid.

She tried not to think of it, though Yugi never looked at people that way. She just said, "See? It didn't even take fifteen minutes to put an outfit together. But I have to go right now." She approached Yugi to give him a kiss good-bye, but he didn't respond to it.

He angrily stated, "You talk way too much for your own good."

Tea quickly stepped back. She was so offended and hurt and shocked that Yugi would ever say something like that to her. Trying to stop herself from crying, she said, "Why are you being so rude?"

Yugi ignored her question, and had no sympathy for her feelings, "So am I your big discussion topic? Is my story the latest gossip? Do you always go around telling everyone what's going on in my life?" Yugi almost shouted, he calmed himself down though, because in the back of his mind he would always have some self-control toward Tea. Though he was very upset.

Tea realized what he was talking about. It didn't make sense to her that something like that would cause him to react this way. "You can't possibly be this upset about me keeping your friends informed on what's happening. Yugi, what's wrong?" She was still holding back tears.

"I can if it's my personal life. It's my business to tell. That's my job to keep them informed."

"Yeah, and that would be great- if you actually did it. Don't you think it's pretty hard to tell people these things if you don't actually talk to them? If you weren't always too busy-"

"Oh, that's right." Yugi interrupted, "How silly of me. I almost forgot that I'm the bad guy." His sarcasm was evident in his voice.

"Well Yugi. I don't know what to tell you." She crossed her arms and looked up for a second, still trying to hold back tears. She looked back at him. "You should be the expert on bad guys. Don't they neglect the people who care about them?"

Yugi had nothing to say to that. He looked down at her. Honestly, he didn't care about a word she just said. He was still so angry, and was only getting madder at himself for hurting Tea's feelings, but that's still not the root of his anger. He only had one thing on his mind the whole time. "Please Tea," she looked up at him, wandering if he calmed down. "please don't tell me that my mom knows." Yugi stared at Tea seriously, and Tea could feel his glare. "Please don't tell me that you told my mom that the only man she ever loved that broke her heart twice is staying at my house."

Tea's heart stopped. She almost couldn't speak. She held her breath. Yugi was frightening to talk to when he was like this. Tea wouldn't do something like that though. She practically had to convince herself that she didn't do anything wrong before she could even look at Yugi. She exhaled, and dizzily replied, "I...didn't." She took another breath to calm down, "I didn't tell her anything. And I know she hasn't heard anything from anyone else who does know."

Yugi looked down with relief, letting out his held breath along with his anger. He wasn't really upset about the invasion of his personal life, all along he was upset about his mom. Thinking that his mom would be devastated once she found out, he knew he would have difficulty telling her. He was so worried that she would be so heart broken, she could become ill or have a heart attack. He was afraid to hurt her. He knew he had to tell her.

Without looking at Tea, he told her, "You can go then."

Then Tea burst out into tears. That grabbed Yugi's attention immediately. She put her hands over her eyes and continued crying into them. She removed her hands and cried, "You know I wouldn't do that Yugi!" Her comment surprised him. He quickly walked up and wrapped his arms around her, letting her cry into his chest. Though muffled, he could hear her say, "I'm sorry, I wouldn't do that." She continued crying. "Please don't be mad at me."

"I'm not." Man, what a jerk he was. Why did he act like that? Maybe what Atem and Tea said was right. This whole situation with his father was turning him into a monster. His father hurt his mom, now why did he have to go and hurt Tea? "Tea, I didn't mean what I said." He stroke her hair gently. "You didn't do anything wrong." He shook his head. "I was just acting like a jerk."

"No Yugi." She began to calm down. "You're not a jerk. You're a sweet, caring, and protective man. I know you didn't mean to come off so strongly toward me. But it's okay, I'm a girl who will make mistakes, and you're a guy who will make mistakes."

"A guy Tea? A guy who makes mistakes?" He repeated to her, sort of in a trance. 'A guy, who makes mistakes. A guy, who might want to fix them, because it's a mistake. Maybe if he's sorry. Maybe a guy is forgiven when he makes mistakes. Why can't he be forgiven if he asks for it, if he truly asks for it? Why can't a guy be forgiven? How do you know if he sincerely wants to be? How do you know if he really is sorry? Yugi wandered all of these questions. He thought he wandered them to himself in his mind.'

"You don't Yugi."

Yugi snapped back to reality. "What?"

Tea sniffled, but she did stop crying. "You don't really know. You can only use your best judgment, and accept the consequences if he is lying."

Yugi was horrified. "What are you talking about?"

"Those things you just said. How do you know if he's sorry? That's my answer."

He guessed that he was speaking aloud. He didn't mean for her to hear any of that. "Don't you have to go now."

"What?" She asked confused.

"Tea, you're late you have to go."

"No, it's okay. I'll be fine. I'll be here as long as you need me." She smiled now.

Yugi separated himself from her, and put out his arms to keep her away. "Leave Tea. You have to go."

"Why?"

"Well..." He didn't know what to tell her. He was still freaking out at her hearing what he said. Did she know who Yugi was talking about? Finally, he told her the truth calmly. "You weren't supposed to hear any of that." Yugi tried to bring her toward the door."You have to go now."

"Don't be embarrassed, I'm here for you."

"Thank you, now leave."

She stopped him from shooing her out the door, stopped him and turned to face him, and tried to calm him down. She placed her hands on his face to make his eyes meet hers. "Yugi, all of your friend care about you, and they want to help you. I want to let you know that I never meant any harm, and your mom is fine. If you want, we can go later today to tell your mom everything that's going on, and I'll help you. Then everything will be fine. Do you want to do that?" She smiled for him.

Her smile lit him up on the inside. He was glad that she stopped crying. But as he looked down into her eyes, he thought not only of what she was saying, what Joey said. Thinking about these, he ignored her question and blurted out, "Let's go eat dinner tonight."

Tea continued smiling, then began to laugh, then went back to her grin. She ask, "Are you serious?"

Yugi nodded but also said, "Yeah."

She removed her hands from his face, but kept smiling and replied, "No." She stopped smiling. "Yugi, you work tonight, remember? Or did you forget?"

Yugi didn't answer her again. Tea reached up to him to kiss him. He kissed her back. Then she said "I love you."

He replied, "I love you too."

She smiled one last time before turning to leave. He watched her walk out the door and shut it behind her.

Yugi sighed and walked over to sit on the couch. Looking up at the TV, he saw himself drawing a card in a duel. He immediately grabbed the remote and pressed the power button to the TV off. It switched off and he no longer felt like looking at the TV.

Iris, having watched the whole thing, walked up to Yugi. "Yeah, I've seen that one like a million times. I didn't want to watch it either." She grinned.

He noticed her smile had more wisdom than it did innocence. He smiled back, acknowledging her motive. "They do show it like all the time, don't they?"

She nodded and sat next to him on the couch. She asked, "What are you thinking about?"

He definitely knew the answer to that question. "I'm thinking about Tea." He sighed. "Do you think I work too much?"

Iris shrugged. "I think there's a reason you're on TV more than any other duelist."

"I guess that's true." He looked around collectively before turning back to her, "What does that mean? What should I do? Not work?"

She plainly stated. "I think that as the adult male it's your responsibility to find the appropriate balance between your job and your family. After all, families need that male role model and support for the family."

He nodded blankly. "That is true." He looked at her questioningly. "How would you know? You don't even know where your dad is!" He teased.

She simply replied, "Yeah, well neither do you." She smiled at him again. They both laughed.

Yugi had nothing to say except, "Okay, that's fair."

Iris laughed, "That's not fair! That's terrible for us." She kept laughing, showing her good humor toward the situation.

He smiled. "I know, it is terrible. It's not like there's anything we can do about it. Besides, who needs a father anyways?"

"Everyone." Iris teased.

"Well, who needs one right now?"

"Not us!" she said excitedly.

"That's right." He checked his cell phone for the time, "I think we should leave right now if you want to get something to eat. Are you hungry?"

She nodded.

"Then let's get out of here."


	5. Back to School

**AN: So, I'm back! I am so sorry for keeping everyone waiting. I really appreciate the support from everyone! As for this chapter, I hope everyone remembers that Yugi is a teacher. This is actually shorter than I excpected, but that's cool. I have another chapter that's ready to be posted, I'm just waiting for reviews. Also, I'm not sure if the quality is my best, so any concerns or corrections or advice is welcomed! Please enjoy. =)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, and thank goodness for that, otherwise everyone would have to wait a year for the next episode.**

Yugi and Iris entered the classroom. Immediately, the class of young adults looked up at Yugi from their desks.

"Good morning class." Yugi greeted, standing in front of all of his students.

There was a jumbled reply of "Good morning" and "Hey" and "Hello".

"I know it's too late for anyone to to enter this class," Yugi started, trying to come up with an explanation for Iris, "but this is an honorary student who's here just for today." Yugi gestured to Iris.

"Is she qualified?" One student asked referring to the qualifications everyone had to meet in order to be in Yugi's class. The duelists needed to be at a certain level to apply- a high level. That means that they had to defeat some pretty important duelists.

Yugi responded, "Of course she's qualified."

"Who did she beat?" Another student asked.

Yugi didn't realize his students would be so skeptical, though she is much younger. Couldn't they just trust his word? "Uhhh..." Yugi stalled, "Ummmm... she beat..." He looked around the room and saw a poster of Seto Kaiba and his three Blue-Eyes White Dragons. Why did he even have that poster? "She beat Kaiba."

The entire class dropped their jaws. Iris even looked up at Yugi in disbelief. They spoke amongst themselves saying things like, "Really?", and "Her?", and "Kaiba?".

"Yes." Yugi hushed them. "That's right." He smiled fiendishly. "She defeated Mokuba Kaiba."

Now the class became obviously less interested, "That's no big deal." One student replied.

Yugi simply looked at him, "Have you ever defeated Mokuba Kaiba?"

"Well- no."

"Then you've learned your lesson. Haven't you?"

His class looked at him with confusion.

"You see, I'll bet you all thought she wasn't even old enough duel. You could have all underestimated her talent."

The class began listening intently while taking notes.

"Nobody used to think that I was a duelist- when I was short. Maybe next time you guys won't assume that a duelist has to be a tall brunette, with gorgeous blue eyes and a sexy body."

His entire class stopped their pencils in harmony. They looked up at Yugi with wide, confused eyes. At last, a girl in the back row asked, "Did you just say that Seto Kaiba has gorgeous blue eyes and a sexy body?"

Yugi jumped back in shock, "No!" He replied in disgust, "Why would I say that? I wouldn't say that!" He smiled, "I was talking about my girlfriend. She's a pretty good duelist too you know?" Though he laughed too himself, he did still shudder at the physical features that Tea and Kaiba had in common. It was pretty weird.

His class laughed, and so did Iris.

"Anyways," He began, "That's my lesson for today, I guess."

His class looked at him in disbelief.

"Okay, the truth is that I don't have a lesson plan. This is actually my little sister, and I need to watch her for today. I was going to give you a test, but since she's here I don't really feel like it.

The class cheered for not having to take a test. They celebrated with applaus and high fives and exclaiming, "Yes!"

"So get with a partner and practice dueling. Remember, the unit we're on is fusion monsters. That means your partner is grading you on how well you fuse and use your monsters." Yugi stopped talking right there, because he was actually embarrassed that he rhymed.

The class then began their duels. Most of them changed seats and loudly move their desks around.

Yugi turned to Iris. "Grab a chair and pull it up to my desk."

While she did that, Yugi sat down at his desk and opened a large drawer. When she sat down next to him, she watched him look through the drawer which was filled with games. There was a deck of playing cards, a few puzzles, pick-up-sticks, a small chess board which converted into checkers and backgammon, dominoes, a book of sudokus, another book of crossword puzzles, some handheld electronic games, and some more that she couldn't recognize.

"You have a lot of games."

"Yeah, I need something to do while they practice dueling. And I don't want to grade papers." He smiled. "Do you know how to play chess?"

Iris nodded.

Yugi pulled out a chess board. "I don't know why I even bring two-player games. But it's a good thing I did."

Yugi began to set up his side.

"So, when did you start teaching this class anyways?" Iris set up her own pieces.

"I started teaching here two years ago."

"Why did you start teaching it?"

Yugi shrugged, having just finished setting up his side. "I don't know. Everyone told me that I could teach young people a lot about dueling.

Iris was done putting up her pieces. Yugi made the first move, then Iris went. "I'll bet they would have hired you at the duel academies. Why didn't you teach there?"

The two of them made several moves in a row, one after another. "I didn't want to go too far from Domino City. I'd rather teach at a smaller school like this one. And the students can transfer to an academy and then become pro."

Throughout their conversation, they continue the game.

"Oh, you would have have to stay on the campus and that's too far from here."

"Exactly. How about you? Where have you been living?"

"Just north of Domino, but I've been moving around."

"You don't really stay at one place for long?"

"Well, no. Check."

Yugi's move took him out of check. Then he replied, "Why don't you and your father stay in one place?"

"We haven't really had a place. He's had several girlfriends and we stay with them." She made her move. "Why did you call him my father? He is our dad, isn't he?"

"Yeah, but no. He's just a father to me. The way I always saw it, a dad is a person you know. A father is just a person who...well...conceives you. Check."

Iris moved her king out of check. "Conceives?"

"Never mind. The point is, he's your dad. He's not a great one, but he is."

"Maybe not, but it's not like I know any other kind. Besides, I still love him." She moved one of her pieces. "And you?"

Yugi thought for a moment, Whether it was about his move or her question was unclear. "I don't know. I'm confused." He made his move. "No."

"Oh." When she moved her piece she said, "Check."

"I don't know." He tried to clarify. "I don't even know him."

"I understand."

"You do?"

"Yeah, it's just that...you don't know me either."

He was a bit surprised, but she was right. "Well, I don't know what to say, It's not like I don't love you." He moved his king and took out one of her pieces.

"But, you don't know me."

"Can you blame me? Really?"

"No." She admitted with a smile.

Yugi moved a knight, "Checkmate."

"See, you are good at all games."

Yugi laughed, "You should see me against Kaiba. Chess is his favorite game, and he gets all worked up when I beat him."

"He does?" Iris laughed, "I didn't know that."

"That reminds me." Yugi began to put the chess pieces away. "After this class, I have to go straight to Kaiba Corp."

"Why?"

"Because I have a meeting with Kaiba."

Iris gasped. "I'll get to meet Kaiba?" Iris exclaimed, a bit too loudly. The whole class stopped what they were doing and looked up at Iris.

Yugi noticed and replied, just as loud, "Yes, you will get to meet Mokuba Kaiba."

The class became less interested and continued what they were doing. Yugi winked at Iris and she grinned, "Really?" She exclaimed in an excited whisper.

Yugi nodded subtly.

"I'm not related to him too, am I?" She asked jokingly.

Yugi stopped to seriously think about it. "Well- no. I don't think so."

"What do you mean by that? Are you related to him?"

He scratched his head. "It's complicated. You see, I'm not sure if I'm some kind of descendant of Atem. Seto was Atem's cousin, and I think Kaiba is a descendant of Seto. So I'm not sure if we're related. Does that make any sense?"

Yugi thought he clarified that for Iris, but she looked more confused than ever. "What?"

"But Atem never reproduced." Yugi concluded, "So, I guess not. I think I'm a descendant of Shimon anyways. Never mind."

Iris stared at him blankly. "You might be related to Kaiba because he's related to himself, and was Atem's cousin. But you're actually related to Shimon because Atem never had kids and I have no idea who Atem or Shimon is."

"Yeah, I'll explain later." But Yugi was surprised that she understood any of what he was saying.

Two kids raised their hands. "We're done." one said.

"Who won?" Yugi asked while picking up a pen and pulling out a clipboard.

Both students pointed to the winner. "He did." The other student said.

Yugi wrote a check mark on the paper on the clipboard. "Turn in your papers and you can leave."

The students turned in their papers and left. Then, two by two, more students finished their duels and left. Yugi made more and more marks on his paper. This continued until they were all gone.

"Well, we better not keep Mr. Kaiba waiting." Yugi smiled as the two also left.

**Like I said, normally it's better quality than this. Also, it's longer. I've written most of the story down on paper, I just need to type the rest. So, hang in there, because it gets way better, I promise! Stay tuned for the next chapter, I'll post it in about a week or sooner if I feel that I've recieved enough reviews from this one. So, thanks to all of my readers, review please!**


	6. That Kaiba, so unpredictable

****

A.N. I'm really sorry about posting this story so late in the day! I know I said it would be up today, but for some people in other time zones it's already the next day. Again, very sorry! I don't want to give excuses, but my computer was angering me! "Grrrr!" I told it, "Work, darn you!" and I shook my fist at it disapprovingly, but nothing could get it to work! lol

Anyways, I would just like to say that I have the bestest, most awesomest readers in the history .....of readers! That's right, this-hopefully funny-chapter is dedicated to you guys! Whether you've been reading this since I started it last year, or are just starting it, you fill me with endless joy and wholeness. It's the only love I need in my life...you guys are my soulmate! lol Seriously though, I bare gifts for all, who likes chocolate? lol You guys are my super-late valentines! lol I give you all, Yu-Gi-Oh valentines cards, that say, "Hope you're day is magic" or "You're one in a millennium" or "You're unbeatable" or "You're a wild card" or "Have a monster day" or "You're a winner" or "You're a tough duelist" or "It's in the cards- we're best friends" or "I've got my EYE on you!". lol Get it? Because, the millennium eye! lol, that's a good one. So, yeah, continue being awesome. Because guess what? These valentines come with stickers!!! (the Yami sticker is mine, I called it! Katrina Kaiba, you can have the Kaiba one, since you sort of inspired this chapter- though I would've written it anyway, I was inspired to get it up ASAP)

One more note, there are a few reviews that I still have not replied...but don't worry, you guys are not forgotten, I pinky promise! I was just having computer troubles, my love goes to you awesome, patient reviewers!

Disclaimer: Chhh... nooo, I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, or I'd be rich, because Yu-Gi-Oh is genius, and that geniousity is way beyond my genius. I do however, own Iris, and Yugi's father. AM I a genius for that? Wait...still not rich...darn!

Yugi and Iris waited patiently to see Kaiba. Or at least, Iris waited patiently, Yugi couldn't be nearly as patient. They were in the waiting room at Kaiba Corp., which the secretary asked them to wait in. Yugi insisted that Kaiba wouldn't have him wait, but he assumed that this secretary was new. Kaiba must've fired the old one- again. Finally, she decided to go ask Kaiba herself.

"My apologies for the mistake Mr. Muto." she said, entering the room.

Yugi and Iris stood up. "No problem." Yugi replied cheerfully. "He didn't fire you, did he?"

"He said he'd give me one week to prove that I'm not completely worthless to the success of Kaiba Corporation."

He smiled, "That means Kaiba's in a good mood."

He and Iris stepped into an elevator. Once they reached a much higher story, they stepped out into a hallway, where they walked into another room. This room was a room for board meetings, with the long table and the many chairs. Kaiba sat in one of the farthest chairs from the door.

"Hey Kaiba." Yugi greeted, sitting in a chair across from Kaiba.

"Enough chit-chat. We've got business to take care of."

Yugi grinned deviously, "I told my class that you have pretty blue eyes and a sexy body." He and Iris began to laugh.

Kaiba, however, rolled his eyes. "Again? Why do you do this to me?"

Yugi shrugged. "It was funny."

"Well, is this your sister?" Kaiba knew that would shut him up.

Yugi forgot that Kaiba knew about that. "Didn't you say enough with the chit-chat?", he said, trying to change the subject. Kaiba gave Yugi a look, then Yugi sighed "Yes, it's my little sister. Iris."

Iris smiled at Kaiba, trying to contain her excitement.

"It's very nice to meet you, Iris." Kaiba replied, trying to be pleasant. "So, your father's in town." Though Kaiba was a jerk, he was actually pretty understanding of the whole situation.

Yugi, reluctant to talk about the it, replied, "Yeah, and he's staying in my garage."

"He's lucky you're so generous." Kaiba was trying to be nice, "Your garage is nicer than most orphanages."

"Still, he kept asking for more: money, a better space. I wouldn't give him anything. I just don't trust him."

"Why should you? It's not like he raised you." Kaiba shook his head. "Trust doesn't come with the title of 'father'. It's earned-like in every other relationship."

"Exactly." Yugi couldn't figure out why Kaiba was being so helpful. "That's what I'm trying to say. No one really gets that."

"People are morons, Yugi. Sometimes you have to excuse them, because you need people to employ." He nodded. "That's how this cruel world works. When you can't hire top-notch intelligence, you end up with a bunch monkeys for employees."

Yugi grimaced, thinking about that poor secretary who always has to put up with this, or at least for another week. "You wouldn't believe it." Yugi tried to take Kaiba's mind off of the new secretary, "He used my little sister into guilting me about how I was making him stay in the garage. Then, he tried to tell my friends that I'm such a giving person, but I ca't even treat, 'my own father' with respect."

"Then your father is as a total creep." He nodded. "Reminds me of my stepfather."

Now Yugi understood why Kaiba was being nice. "Yeah, but it's not like you care, right Kaiba?" He grinned.

"Exactly. I wouldn't care."

Yugi looked at Iris, "He won't admit that he's my friend."

"I'm not!" Kaiba shot back.

"Oh yeah? Let's see about that. Is the chess board ready?"

"It's always ready." Kaiba hit a button and a chess board flipped from underneath the table, like something futuristic. "You're on Yugi."

Iris just stared at the two of them? "Does this always happen when you guys have a meeting?"

Yugi nodded and said, "Every time.", but he never looked away from Kaiba, who stared right back. Without looking away from Kaiba, Yugi made the first move. "So, how is that world tournament going?"

Kaiba glared at Yugi, and didn't look away as he made his move, "It's called the KC world Championship, and we now have winners in Europe and Canada."

"Oh yeah?" Yugi made a move, just as he did before, "The tournament in America is still going on?"

They continued playing as they continued their conversation. "Yes, but it will end in approximately four hours. Yes, Rebecca is still in."

"Awesome." Yugi moved another piece, "Maybe she'll win and come to here for the finals."

"Maybe." Kaiba said skeptically while moving another piece. "I doubt it though, she's going up against some very tough opponents."

"She'll be alright because she's talented. I'll bet that she wins."

"Hmph. I'd like to win that bet. You're on." Kaiba challenged.

"Why bother? You know I always win these things."

"Yugi, I'm rich, I don't care to lose fifty dollars in a bet."

"So, that's the wager?"

"No, I just changed my mind. One hundred."

"Why not make it two hundred?" Yugi was confident.

"Fine. But remember, betting is gambling, and gambling is not your strong point."

"You're right, but that doesn't mean I won't win. Besides, I'm not betting on chance." Yugi debated.

"Drawing a card is based on chance." Kaiba argued.

"Building a deck is not. Rebecca's card set is powerful. Where will the finals be hosted?"

"Kaiba Land Tokyo. I already have an idea for what I'm going to do. Check."

Yugi moved his king out of check. "What's that?"

"To start off with, I've gone through the monster data base and spent even more time perfecting their holographic projections so that they're even more realistic than ever."

"Uh-huh?"

"Did you understand a word I just said?"

Yugi nodded. "Monsters."

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "That's not even the best part."

Yugi seemed surprised, "You got all worked up over it. Go on then!"

"Well, the entire stadium is a holographic projector."

Yugi nodded again as if he understood. "And that means?"

"That means that the monsters won't just be life-size, they'll be bigger than ever. It's no longer meters tall, it's stories tall."

"Oh I get it. Will you use the duel disks?"

"Yes, they plug right into the stadium." Kaiba actually seemed excited about it.

Iris also became excited. "That would be awesome!" She exclaimed.

Kaiba looked at her, "Wouldn't it?"

"Yeah, I just hope I'll get to watch it on a big-screen TV, like Yugi's." She replied.

"Hahaha," Kaiba laughed and looked at Yugi. "The kid's cute." He looked back at Iris, "Silly girl, a TV won't do my stadium justice."

"That's my only option."

"Don't worry, I'll get you some tickets." He replied in a cool-like fashion.

"Really?"

He nodded.

Iris began jumping up in down, "Yugi, I can go, I can go!" She tapped on his shoulder, "Yugi, Kaiba is so cool!"

Yugi laughed, "And he's almost defeated." He made his move. "So, am I dueling?"

Kaiba snapped out of his own excitement, "What? Oh, yeah. Sure. You'll duel I guess."

"Who? Do I duel the winner?"

"I'll duel the winner, and show them humiliating defeat. Then I will duel you, and show you an even more humiliating defeat."

"What if the champion wins?" Yugi teased, "Then do I duel them instead?"

Kaiba smiled, then he began to laugh maniacally. "Like that would happen."

"Do you really think you'll win a duel against me?"

Kaiba gave Yugi an arrogant look, "Do you know what I do while you play around with the kiddies of your little dueling pre-school?"

Now Yugi rolled his eys, "What do you do Kaiba?"

"I practice dueling of course. I practice dueling against a test deck with your cards, and a test deck with you 'alter-egos' cards."

"Why? Yami- I mean- Atem doesn't duel anymore."

"So. I want to be the best. Besides, I was hoping he would show up at the tournament and display

the Egyptian Gods in my stadium."

"No way. He refuses to duel. He, along with the Gods, are retired from dueling. Their battle is over."

"He doesn't have to duel. Could he just play them for entertainment purposes? Sort of like, a half-time show."

"I'll ask him. But he's not putting on a show. It's not like he'll start dancing. He might play them, but that's it."

"That's all I want." Kaiba thought a bit longer on Yugi's previous statement, "Because I would love to see him dancing!" He mocked sarcastically.

"So, that's what you wanted to talk to me about?"

"No."

Yugi stopped to think. "Well," He was confused, "It's not like you need my permission to use your stadium."

"I know. Believe me, I know that." He answered nonchalantly.

Yugi was still confused. "So, is everything going according to plan?" He was trying to figure out why Kaiba called this meeting.

"Yes, everything's perfect."

Finally, Yugi justed blurted, "Then what do you need to see me for?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to brag about my stadium."

Yugi rolled his eyes again as he stood up to leave, "In that case, it's been great talking to you. I can't wait until the next meeting." Yugi said sarcastically. "We'll just be leaving now."

Kaiba looked at him strangely, "What do you mean? We're in the middle of a chess game."

"Oh, that's right. I'm sorry. Check mate." Yugi walked away.

Kaiba looked back at the board and saw that there were no more moves he could make. He stood up, "Yugi."

Yugi stopped and looked back at him. "Yes."

"The stadium will be ready soon for us to test. So leave a day free in your busy schedule."

"I'll see what I can do."

"Hey..er...Iris, was it?"

Iris nodded to Kaiba, "Yes."

"I won't forget those tickets, alright? I'm a Kaiba, and a Kaiba always keeps his promises. That includes Mokuba, or else he's grounded."

Iris smiled. "Alright, thanks."

As the two of them passed through the waiting room again, they passes the secretary and Yugi said,

"See, I told you he was in a good mood. Good luck with your week."

"Thank you. Have a nice day." She smiled cheerfully, still a bit relieved.

****

I know, it was kind of short. After this chapter, it goes back to the drama, and there is some heavy drama. There's about two chapters of drama, then a little break. After that, it's some even heavier drama! I should plan a break from the drama after that, but I haven't written that much yet. That will probably be when that tournament will be- which is when I will work in Duke Devlin- eh? Yeah, I'm good. Then, it would be even heavier drama! Oooh, if only you guys knew what was in store....I can't wait!

By the way, did anyone picture Mikage(Mina) as the secretary, because I did for some strange reason. Ya' know, Mina/Mikage from Yu-Gi-Oh 5d's. It's Jack's secretary or something. I hope everyone liked Kaiba, because that's all I have planned for him until the tournament. Please don't hurt me!

****

Review please. Honest feedback appreciated. Don't worry, I'm tough, I can handle it! lol


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